


the lucky ones

by ffxo



Category: Riverdale (TV 2017)
Genre: Boarding School AU, F/F, F/M, M/M, Multi, a different take on the show, veronica is the new girl
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-02-09
Updated: 2019-03-16
Packaged: 2019-10-25 03:38:53
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 42,385
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17717339
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ffxo/pseuds/ffxo
Summary: every now and then, the stars alignboy and girl meet by the great designcould it be that you and me are the lucky ones?xveronica lodge, former nyc it girl fallen from grace rolls up to the most prestigious boarding school in washington as the new mystery everyone wants to unfold. especially, archie andrews...





	1. chapter one

**Author's Note:**

> hey everyone, i’m back and my old ao3 account got terminated which is sad because all the works i had on there isn’t one place now, but i’m going to try reposting it all slowly. 
> 
> if you’ve previously left comments on this fic before just know that it’ll be reposted on here, and if you left kudos before you can do those ♥️. 
> 
> I love all of you x 
> 
>  
> 
> dedicated to my faves ; vik, ak, milly, yani, makayla, leah, emily, becca, cass, katie, B and gabbi. you girlies have my heart

 

_wrap me up in Chanel inside my coffin_

_might go to Hell and there ain’t no stopping, might be a sinner and might be a saint_

_I’d like to be proud but somehow I’m ashamed, sweet little baby in a world full of pain_

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

_All Veronica wants is to think about something less painful. Something random, redundant, obscure. But the weight is like boulders on her two shoulders, forcing her to remember, and so is the thick tornado of anger that seems to grow every time her parents shout. Every time they even look at her it grows and grows and suddenly it’s like she can’t think about anything else. Like her whole life has changed to revolve around it._

_  
“So if people want to talk about it then let them! Why can’t we just deal with it? Or tell the truth?” Her shoulders hunch with expression, the undersides of her arms tickled by her own fingertips._

_  
“No no mija” her mother is quick to dispose of the idea. Probably so her father won’t get angrier. “Please don’t argue this anymore. You know how much trouble that would cause”_

_  
“Especially since trouble has a way of following you” he snaps, eyes dark and glowering._

_  
“You would know” she mutters under her breath._

_  
The room erupts in a kind of noise so terrifying her heart races, her father’s fist caving their wall and her mother’s desperate cry. Veronica can’t even cry anymore. She did too much of that last night. Her heart is thundering behind her chest and it begs to erupt. She crosses her arms over her stomach, and her mother’s eyes watch every move before she looks away in an almost disgust. There’s nothing in the world that hurts as much as to be looked at that way, but there’s nothing she can do now._

_  
“Please don’t do this daddy” if begging is deemed desperate, then so be it. That’s what she is right now. “I’ll take responsibility and I’ll tell everyone what really happened”_

_  
“For gods sake Veronica don’t be so stubborn!” Her mother’s refined features, never seen a day of hardship in her high position of society. They crumple in agonising distress at her daughter. “Your father and I are trying to find the best option to keep you out of this”_

_  
“You’re trying to ruin my life!” It hits her then that she should have never told her parents. Maybe just run away one day to Paris and never look back. This was a bad idea._

_  
“Veronica Cecilia Lodge a ver si me bajas ese tonito eh pendeja!”_

_  
“Pero es que mierda papi! How do you expect me to react?! You’re taking everything that I care about away from me!”_

_  
Screaming like that feels cathartic in a way, freeing herself of a bundled knot of terror and stress just for a fleeting second. It doesn’t last long though, and she takes three steps back pressing her back into the glass window, overlooking the East Village beneath them. She never expected something like this to happen in her life, especially not at the age of fifteen. It’s like jumping off a helicopter or when she bungee jumped in Switzerland. The adrenaline bleeds off your body and it shivers until you’re cold, toes numb and fingers shaky. The air is tight in your lungs and it’s burning all over, you’re breathing, but just barely._

_  
“I’m not going to let my fifteen year old daughter ruin everything I’ve worked so hard to build. You’re going to that boarding school in Washington, and this is final.”_

_  
He shuts the door behind him with a meaningful slam and from that moment on, her entire world was rocked upside down._

 

 

 

 

 

 

x:x

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The sky is grey in Hawthrone, where she landed at the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport just three hours ago. Her driver tells her something about it always being this grey here, and how she should get used to it. She supposes there’s a lot she has to get used to. Veronica has seen a lot the town whizz by from where she’s seated the past hours. The centre of the city, dominated by sky scrapers that are breathtaking, the countless abundant parks and neighbourhoods offering a great prospect of the city.

  
They’re finally closing in to the campus grounds now, she can tell by the _Welcome to UCA_ region sign a few miles back, and the roads start narrowing down. She only realises how irritated she is when a pang of fresh nerves hit her for the first time.

  
“Please, turn the radio down or change it to something else.”

 

“Your parents told me you like listening to the news, Miss Veronica-“

  
“I said turn it off, didn’t I?” She snapped irritably.

 

Veronica bites her lip as the scene of boarding school becomes realer in her eyes, when she sees students clambering around in uniforms that look rather dashing if she’d admit, in the gravely path they’re driving through. There’s tall, oak wood trees and a calm smile on the students’ faces, but she realises its not ones she’ll be schooling with. Male students. Squinting a bit closer, she can see one of them laughing and loosening his tie, his green eyes striking enough that they shine from where he’s standing. The boy, tall and handsome in a classic way, is talking to his friend who looks happy and interested. He’s decent looking too.

  
_Foxcroft Academy_ sign comes into view and Veronica leans back, exhaling through her nose. She doesn’t want or need to get interested in any of the boys at the connection school anyway, not after she vowed off boyfriends. The car circles around a big water fountain that is the centre of the campus, and she’s met with acres and acres of neatly trimmed grass and girls clad in their grey skirts and jackets walking the pathway. It all feels very unreal, like something out of the Malory Towers novels she used to read as a girl.

 

“Miss Veronica, welcome to Upper Columbia Academy” her designated driver quickly rushes out to open her door, and she’s completely collected as she steps one Louboutin heel onto the ground outside. She adjusts her sunglasses, even with the overcast day, and presses her dark lips together before stepping out completely.

  
UCA, home of upper middle class offspring and snooty goody two shoes, is a lot bigger than her old school in New York. There’s a huge building before her that looks like it was built before 1989 for sure, and the absence of security guards and metal detectors almost confuses her.

  
She’s aware of all the heads that turn and the pairs of eyes that are stuck on her, raven hair and shiny olive legs mostly covered by a brand new Chanel dress. Some of them look young and are admiring, others are amused and she spots a few with the familiar jealous glint in their eyes. She takes a moment to assess the sumptuous setting before she’s distracted by a blonde girl who jumps in front of her. Her eyes are brighter than the sky and her flaxen hair is pulled up into a tight ponytail, hands clasped behind her with a broad, excited smile on her face.

  
“Hi! I’m Elizabeth Cooper, but you can call me Betty. You must be Veronica Lodge” the blonde greets.

  
“That’s what they’re saying?” Veronica shakes Betty’s hand courteously, looking her up and down with appreciation. She seems nice, so far.

  
“I’m your peer mentor today, and well- as long as you need me” she smiles and holds out her hand, which Veronica ignores but starts warily. “They’ll have your bags put in our dorm room, no worries. Yes, we’re roomies. And we should make it back there before assembly begins so you can change, the uniform is on your bed already.”

  
“Not a lot must happen around here” Veronica notes. She takes a look at the six suitcases she’d brought, not too happy to be parting with them to god knows where.

  
Betty giggles and takes Veronica’s hand this time, not waiting for the other girl to respond. Up close, she can see that Betty has the end of the long sleeves of her white shirt folded up over her grey blazer, pinned there with bright pink and gold studs that make a statement. She has a rhinestone choker on her neck, and the tiny edges of a lace camisole is visible where she leaves the first three buttons of her shirt unbuttoned. Veronica can appreciate someone who adds a little style to the plain uniform.

  
“No, and just an _fyi_ , everyone _will_ stare today.” Betty says to her, while the stares follow both girls walking up the steps. “Veronica Lodge showing up here for junior year is something of a novelty”

  
“So you know who I am?”

  
“Doesn’t everybody?” The blonde replied casually. She half hugs a girl with glossy raven hair as they pass in the hallway, and a lot more people stop and say hello to her which she answers with a breezy confidence.

  
She gives Veronica a general tour of the main study building, pointing into the direction of classes and their different halls and facilities. She mentions that they’ll have to get to the rest of it, the dormitories and outside campus, later as they pass a brass knobbed door and stops. “This” she lightly taps the door, “is Principal Covington’s office. She asked me to have you meet her before you head to our dorm.”

  
Veronica feels a little emptiness when Betty lets go of her hand, which she’d been holding this whole time as she takes a slow look at the door. “Should I be scared?”

  
“She won’t be thrilled about your outfit” Betty surveys Veronica’s tight fitting dress that shows off her curvaceous hips and small waist, and the black faux fur jacket she’s donning. “But just between us, I love it!”

  
That makes Veronica grin. “Okay, blondie. Don’t wonder off”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  
x:x

 

 

 

 

 

 

  
“You asked to be here?”

  
A woman sitting behind an antique writing desk has her head of immaculately coiffed hair bowed down at whatever she’s working on. She looks up at the sound of Veronica’s voice, to see a tiny girl, dressed à la mode standing in the middle of her office. It takes her a moment to understand the situation.

  
“You must be Veronica” she says, lips tight “Come back in after you’ve knocked on the door”

  
“But- Betty told me you asked me to meet you” she cranes her neck towards the direction of the door.

  
Principal Covington takes her reading glasses off and sets them down, smiling shortly. “Perhaps I should remind Elizabeth to add etiquette when she gives her tours. Now, knock and wait for me to let you in.”

  
Veronica pauses for a second before briskly walking out the office and closing the door. She looks around and spots Betty talking to some girls against the lockers, laughing and showing each other something on their phones. She takes a breath and knocks loudly for good measure.

  
“Come in”

  
She fights back the urge to roll her eyes while walking in again. Principal Covington is a petite lady with pale skin and dark features, a quizzical look in her sharp brow that must make the students clam up and cower. She tells Veronica to take a seat, eyeing her keenly.

 

“How do you like Upper Columbia Academy so far?” Her voice is gentle but strong.

  
Veronica shrugs. “Not much more than when I saw the website online. I’m sure you know that my parents were the ones that wanted me here, I had no say in the matter. As I don’t in most things.”

 

“Yes, I’m aware of that fact.. but I’m sure that there will be something in this school that catches your attention, maybe even enough to love it.”

  
“Ha, I doubt that” she crosses her arms out of natural reflex. If her parents want to ship her to the other side of the country out of shame and their image makeover bullshit, they’ll have to know that there isn’t a way Veronica is going to actually like it. She liked driving to school every morning just to show off her car. She liked getting Serendipity’s with the girls on her cheer squad after practice, she liked sneaking into clubs with her friends and high tea on Sunday with her family, her bedroom with the Central Park view. They don’t even have a cheerleading squad here.

 

“Now don’t be so sure, Veronica.” The name on the desk reads Alexis Covington, and Veronica focuses on it instead of her motherly face. “The girls here are lovely. I’m sure you’ll make some friends. We encourage all students to participate in as many clubs and sport teams as they want, and we do have a plethora of them. I’m sure there has to be one that’ll catch your eye.”

  
“The only sport I did in Spence was cheerleading, and I already looked it up, you don’t have one of those here” she replies completely unrepentantly.

  
“Your parents did mention how talented you are. You also play piano, don’t you?”

  
Her jaw tightens then. She used to. _Played_. “It was a childhood thing.”

  
“Well we have an orchestra room by the dinner halls, and a grand piano in the music room as well. You should ask Elizabeth to show you where that is. And keep in mind, Veronica, we don’t always choose the things we love. Sometimes it can come without us expecting it, at times even in the place we don’t want to find it.”

  
Veronica looks a little uncertainly at the older woman. _what the fuck?_ “Is there anything else you wanted to tell me? Betty says we have to change before assembly and I wanna make sure my bags don’t have scratches on them when they get to my room”

  
“Please try to adjust yourself as best as you can, Veronica. And take what I said into consideration. It could really help you cope”

  
“Fine. Can I go, _now_?” She’s becoming fidgety and the solemn way this woman looks at her makes her feel uncomfortable wondering how much she knows about her. Did her parents tell Principal Covington everything? How much detail did they go into?

  
She does one more once over of the teenage girl, and surprisingly doesn’t say anything about her outfit. “Yes, Miss Lodge. Give Elizabeth my thanks.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

  
x:x

 

 

 

 

 

 

  
“How did it go?” Betty’s sunny demeanour is comforting to go back to after that nerving meeting. She has her hands in her pockets, hiding the rings on her fingers that Veronica noticed when her hand was in hers.

  
“She’s definitely weird. Are all the teachers like that?”

  
“Do you want me to answer that?”

  
Veronica laughs as she starts walking in the direction that Betty is leading her. She likes all the attention that she gets just from walking into a room. Veronica is indisputably one of the most popular girls in New York and her family is influential enough that the fame spreads even all the way to Washington. She’s always had a reputation for being pretty, for being good in school and quite a party animal, but it never occurred to her until now that everyone here knows who she is.

  
“Come on, let’s meet our other roomies.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The dormitories have dimly lit hallways, a lounge for every floor and a stairwell that looks like it was made before safety precautions were a thing. It’s clean though, and she sees girls chilling in the lounge on their phones while Betty takes her to 3B. From the outside of what’s presumably their door, from the way Betty smiles meaningfully at it, she hears noises.

 

“Are you sure these boots don’t look too trendy for assembly?”

  
“You’re asking me?” Another voice replies, just as loud and half as enthusiastic. “You know me. I’ve worn the same boots since freshman year. They’re getting snug”

  
“I’ll go shopping with you!” The first girl gushes, just as Betty opens their door to reveal the faces behind both voices.

  
Veronica assesses the people in front of her before looking around the room. It’s fairly spacious, with four beds facing each other and a set or drawers next to each. There’s one big wardrobe in the middle and two study desks in the corner already cluttered with things, and that’s about it.

  
Both girls whip around when they hear the door open. One with long, sleek raven hair, the same girl Betty had hugged in the hallway earlier. She in fact was wearing some very eccentric knee high boots, arguing with the smaller girl. Light brown hair, big hazel eyes that glowed against her olive skin.

  
“Oh my gosh, it’s you! Betty wasn’t kidding!” The first girl runs up to Veronica. She has an undying energy, even more cheerful than Betty. “Hi, I’m Sheila Wu. Betty said that you’d be rooming with us after the last girl graduated, but I didn’t believe her!”

  
Sheila was met with a blank stare. “Oh.”

  
“I know you probably hear this a lot, but I am a huge fan of your family. Your dad’s running an empire, your mom is so gorgeous and nice and you’re practically a fashion mogul. I even bought the bag Marc Jacobs named after you.”

  
“You have nice style too” Veronica smiles tightly, half amused and half annoyed.

  
“Thank you!”

  
“And I’m Toni, Topaz. Not as versed in the Lodge family Wikipedia, but its nice to meet you”

  
“Topaz like the purple gemstone. Love it” Veronica grinned brilliantly, and the two girls beamed at her.

 

  
Betty tells the girls to give Veronica space so she can start settling in as much as possible and change before assembly, which they decide to hang around and help her instead. There’s no way all six of her suitcases can stay in the dorm room, so Sheila says they might send it back. UCA’s day uniform is ugly. She doesn’t know any way else to put it, it’s plain and almost as missable in a crowd as wearing a hoodie and sweats. They have two options, grey like ones Betty and Sheila are wearing, but Veronica decides to go with the dark blue instead.

  
She takes a moment in their shared bathroom to reapply her makeup, a tear or so escaping when she’s struggling but it’s really just the layered tension and anger that’s been piling on her ever since leaving home. She wonders what her parents are doing. She wonders what her friends think happened, or what her parents _told_ them, what they made them believe. She puts copious amounts of mascara and more concealer on her under eyes to conceal the drained sunken look, and a bold red lip.

  
She’s not sure how to style herself. This is all too sudden. It’s just now now hitting her how far away she is, not a soul that she knows around, and she can’t think properly. Veronica hastily grabs the plaid skirt and pulls it on. Her best Victoria’s Secret that isn’t exactly a push up but it definitely adds a vision, leaving three buttons on her white shirt undone and tucking it in with a big gold belt around her waist.

  
“Veronica! Come on, we’re about to be late” Betty’s voice comes from behind the door, a light rep of her knuckles on the wood.

  
“Just a sec!” Veronica shouts back. She brushes her loose curls out and adds one of her favourite black headbands, deciding to go with heels instead of boots since it would take too much time, and it shows off her toned legs sunkissed from summer. She fishes for her jewellery box and layers a couple chains, necklaces and the ring her abuelita gave her on her birthday this year.

  
Veronica stares at herself in the mirror for one last second, she leaves the school jacket and finally opens the door.

  
“Ta-da. What do you think? Am I upholding my reputation even in these period pieces?”

  
Betty’s more than amazed, her jaw dropped. Sheila squeals and claps her hands. “It’s going to be so fun having you as a roommate!”

  
“Okay, you look hot, but I think you should at least wear the blazer or you might freeze your ass off.” Betty tells her, picking up the dark blue blazer and forcing Veronica to shrug into it. “Now let’s go!”

 

 

A part of her feels empowered, strutting, almost running down the hallway next to the other girls in her new outfit. Maybe it’s the attention that follows her, or the confidence she’s always worn on her sleeve, but something about fitting in while still standing out is thrilling and she likes it. For the first time she feels the trip of thrill run through her veins like electricity.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

x:x

 

 

 

 

 

 

  
Assembly is expectedly boring. For the other students at least, who have been through Principal Covington’s droning speeches more times than needed in a lifetime. Veronica thinks there’s something about that woman, Toni and Sheila might joke that she gets too philosophical at times but she actually thinks there’s some meaning behind her words.

  
The three of them sit at the second row, behind a line of prefects that include Betty. When they’re dismissed everyone stands up immediately and Betty reaches behind to grab her hand. Veronica tries to take a look around at the other students, the boys of Foxcroft are sitting on the other side of the shared hall but it’s such a havoc of people talking and walking in groups that she doesn’t get to see much. All she gets to confirm is what she knew to begin with, the boys look exceptionally dashing in their uniforms.

  
“Girls!” The high pitched sound of a girl’s voice has Veronica turning her head in the direction, raven hair fanning around her. She’s met with the sight of one of the most stunning girls she’s ever seen, bright red hair and porcelain skin that looks icy against her navy blue uniform.

  
Betty is the first to respond. “Hey, cousin” the blonde reaches for a hug, but the girl in subject barely reciprocates because her eyes on Veronica. Betty almost stifles a laugh.

  
“Veronica Lodge, I’ve been hearing about you” the red headed girl says, assessing her coolly.

  
“I haven’t heard about you” Veronica replies with a small smile.

  
“Right. I’m Cheryl, Cheryl Blossom.” She casts her chocolate brown eyes around the hall, at everyone dispersing before continuing. “My parents own the biggest maple syrup company, the one that’s sweeter than sugar. I’m cousins with your new friend Betts”

  
Veronica is momentarily surprised, Betty nods apprehensively confirming the statement and Sheila mutters under her breath “also a full time snobby bitch” which Veronica doesn’t do a good job of hiding her laugh at.

  
Cheryl flips her long hair and shoots a glare in Sheila’s direction, rolling her eyes dramatically before she turns to Toni. “Topaz” she nods curtly.

  
“Blossom”

 

“Well then” Betty can’t stand the awkwardness from the group, making way for them to leave. “Let’s turn in our phones and head to the courtyard for lunch, shall we?”

  
“Wait- turn in our phones?”

  
“Ugh, yes. We only get them during free periods and after study hours. Kept with Vice Principal Flemming.” Toni tells Veronica almost disgustedly. “Here she is now”

  
As students exit the hall a woman that Veronica suspects is Vice Principal Flemming has her box of phones that they slip into personalised phone sleeves before dropping them in, for safety purposes. “Phones, ladies?” The older woman asks, gathering all their devices and then stopping at Veronica. “You can get one of your own later. For now, hand the phone over”

  
She suddenly feels a tight flash of defensiveness in her body and wants to hold on to the little thing as tight as possible. Its currently just in the pocket of her blazer, but you wouldn’t be able to guess, so she considers lying and wonders if they’ll buy it. She’s not exactly a phone addict either, but right now it feels like a lifeline to the rest of her world back in New York. The naive, stupid part of her is still holding on to a hope that maybe her mother will call and ask how it’s all going. Or maybe her abuelita would worry enough to learn how to work her smart phone. Or one of her supposed best friends, or even Smithers. But it’s been hours and no one has called. No one cares.

  
“Don’t worry darling, you’ll get it back at the end of the day” Mrs Flemming tells her as she passes it over hesitantly. The other girls watch her like she’s trying to figure out a pipe bomb.

 

“I’m so nervous about biology this year” Sheila winces as they start walking. “I have Harrison and I know she’s never going to give us a break.”

  
“Just don’t be an idiot and do your homework” Toni says with impatient affection. “Are you worried about any of your classes Veronica?”

 

“I know there’s gonna be lots of work. But I guess we’ll have a lot of time to do it being cooped up in the dorm all day and night” she answers with a small sigh. Veronica was the best in her class last year, and she still had lots of fun with her friends, dating and going to parties, even with the load of cheerleading. She’s pretty confident with herself and she’s always been good at adapting in new situations, although she briefly crosses her fingers hoping nothing terrible goes wrong.

 

“Um, don’t turn around or anything, but someone’s looking at you” Cheryl looks scandalised with her sly grin. “I think we’ll have to introduce new girl to the likes of Chuck Clayton, Betts. Cos he’s looking at her like he’s just got eyes”

 

Veronica stops and turns her head around in confusion. “What?”

  
“Oh gosh” Betty laughs. “Let’s go to lunch, we’ll meet some people.” The five girls turn and begin walking out towards the courtyard.

 

 

 

 

 

  
x:x

 

 

 

 

 

 

  
The other girls wander off somewhere on their way to the courtyard, promising to meet back at “our table”. Veronica follows Betty along and pretends to act casual with everyone turning their heads at them whenever they turn a corner. The courtyard is quite a walk away and Betty says it’s because they share it with Foxcroft, but they’ll need to get their lunch from the cafeteria.

 

“Let’s meet some people first, okay? I kind of promised” the green eyed girl looks at her with a cheeky grin.

 

Veronica raises her eyebrow.

 

“ _Hey guys_!” Betty sing songs as they approach a table on the courtyard, multiple heads turning to see who it is. She stops at the head of their table and plants her palms flat on it, leaning forward a little. Veronica has to laugh, every boy at the table looks lost in the vision of her girlish beauty. But then they turn their eyes on her and a rush of pride and excitement seeps through her because they look absolutely beguiled. “How are you doing on the first day back?”

 

“Great” one of them replies almost instantly. His eyes flashing between both girls, but he’s looking at Betty with a lot of meaning. “Amazing”

  
She catches Betty biting her bottom lip and throws him a playful smile, sighing softly. “That’s good, Reggie. I’m sure you all know Veronica, but she’s new here.”

 

“Chuck Clayton” the tall, dashingly handsome boy stands up and makes his way across the table, leaning against it to have a closer look at Veronica. She can’t deny he’s attractive, like really attractive. She wouldn’t mind messing with that. so he was the one looking at her. “I saw you at the assembly, but it looked like Cheryl got to you first.”

 

“She sure did” Veronica throws her head back and laughs, remembering the eagerness in Cheryl’s tone. And then adds not so subtly, “But it’s not too late yet.”

 

Chuck smirks at her and she has a feeling that something is coming their way. Chuck introduces his three friends at the table; Reggie, Moose and Fangs. They’re all gentlemen and greet her, asking about her day and the trip from New York. Moose and Fangs are sitting next to each other, and Reggie with the killer jaw is the one that’s been tracing one of Betty’s hands on the table with his finger subtly. She pretends to ignore it.

  
“Hey- where’s Archie?” Betty looks to Chuck for an answer who chuckles lowly.

  
“Off writing his melodramatic ballads no doubt” He turns back to Veronica quickly, eyes sharp. “So did Cooper tell you about the back to school dance? Foxcroft and UCA.”

  
“No, she didn’t” Veronica can tell from the spark in his eyes when she says it what he’s meaning to ask, and part of her feels excited while the other is afraid. There’s nothing wrong with having fun, but if he’s the type that’s looking for a girl to go serious with, its just not her... she’s not sure he is that type though.

 

She’s about to ask Chuck to tell her more about this back to school dance when they’re interrupted by Moose, the big brawny one she notes, calls out to a blond guy passing their way.

  
“Yo! Adam, over here!”

  
Betty’s hand disappears under the table to grab Veronica’s and her eyes shoot to Reggie’s before turning around. “Look we’ll see you guys later okay? V and I are gonna catch up with the girls.” Chuck furrows his brows at her. “Tell Archie to look for me during free period.”

  
Adam slows his pace when he sees both girls at the table, Veronica doesn’t know what it is but Betty is forcing a smile and pulling her away.

  
“Bye!” Veronica waves one last time and blows them a kiss, teasingly.

  
“Bye Veronica” Reggie waves back curtly.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“What was that about?” Veronica asks, once they’re a little distance away. There’s students sitting in groups at the tables around them, some chilling under shady trees, and the occasional lone wolf. Her legs shiver a little when a gush of cold wind passes them by.

 

“Things with that guy, Adam, are awkward right now and I don’t really wanna deal with it.” She says simply. “So, I should probably include some social rankings as part of your tour. Cheryl and I sit at the table near the cafeteria, with our friends. That’s where you should too. The boys we met are on the lacrosse team. The hangers on have lunch on the grass, and they usually attack new kids, but you’re already trending number one so-“

  
“-Thank you Betty” Veronica interrupts quickly. “For all this. But you don’t need to take me under your wing. Trust me, I can find my own friends”

  
“Oh! No, no of course not. I wasn’t trying to at all”

  
Veronica smiles, pleased with herself. She has to make sure everyone here knows they don’t need to do anything out of pity, and she most certainly isn’t going to hang with a crowd that’s only sticking to her for the sake of her last name. She did that back at Spence, and it didn’t turn out good, at least not in the long run. There’s a lot of things she’s going to do differently here.

  
“I saw your schedule. You’re in AP Lit, I am too. And so is my friend.” Betty tells her, making another circle that’s out of way to their table.

  
“If you’re asking me to guess it’ll be a tough shot, I think you’re friends with everyone.”

  
Betty giggles, turning her attention back to the smaller lunch table that’s located at the far end of the courtyard, a boy sitting alone with his head hunched down. He’s typing at something on his laptop and there’s two burger wrappers next to it, Veronica wonders what Betty is doing interrupting his alone time.

  
“Juggie!”

  
The boy looks up, and it’s only then that Veronica notices the oddly shaped hat he’s donning. It hides most of his curly, dark hair, but an escaped curl enhancing the colour of his blue eyes. “What are you working on?” Betty asks without failure.

  
“My novel. I can show you what I wrote this summer, just save the spot at the back of Tabronelli’s class.” Veronica notices he hasn’t even looked at her, speaking fixedly to Betty, and it’s amusing as she also finds it infuriating.

  
“Cool! Hey meet my new friend, Jug” Betty introduces, pulling Veronica in closer. It’s only then that he casts his eyes to the raven haired girl, and they fall for one second before he mumbles his social cues.

 

“Veronica Lodge” she clears her throat, holding out a hand. She didn’t shake hands with Reggie or Chuck or Moose, but the guy in front of her looks so awkward and shrivelled that she’s just trying to make anything happen.

  
He takes a look at her, the tall posture, the pearls on her neck, and she knows he recognises the last name, thinking _this girl is snobby as hell_. “Jughead Jones. The Third” he says then, ignoring her outstretched hand and taking another bite of what appears to be his third burger.

  
“Jughead Jones The Third?” She’s never heard a name quite so odd in her whole eccentric life.

  
“You can mimic words” Jughead quipped, sounding awed.

  
Veronica’s face furrowed into a scowl, one that Betty almost laughs at. “Well- we should probably get going. I’ll save us the seat, Jug” her voice is soft and she doesn’t wink or grin at him while they walk away, just a simple smile, one that reaches her eyes, and an innocent wave at his direction.

  
“I’ll wait for you” he tells her.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  
By the time they finally make it to their table, Cheryl is waving energetically over her still full tray of food. She’s already seated, a girl who Veronica hasn’t met yet on one side and empty spaces on the next bench, she beckons them over. Veronica has taken Betty’s advice to skip the hot lunch in favour of some gourmet sandwich and a yogurt and juice, sitting down beside the blonde with a quiet sigh. She’s having a hard time differenciating everyone in the crowd, but she’s almost sure it’s that same boy with the glassy blue eyes and innocence that she saw in the car, make his way over to their table. He’s smiling at the group with bright eyes.

  
“Have you had a good day?” He asks “Met a lot of people? I’m Kevin Keller. The pleasure is mine, trust me”

  
“You already know who I am, I guess we’re best friends now” Veronica laughs a little. She can already tell from the energy Kevin gives off that he’s the type of person she’ll like to be friends with.

  
“It’s so great to finally meet you” Kevin says. Veronica nods as he walks next to her and takes a seat. Kevin is incredibly tall, he towered over Veronica’s tiny frame. Kevin has big green eyes and dark hair that’s nicely cut and styled.

  
“Aren’t you hungry?” Betty looks directly at her cousin, and the still unopened sandwich on her tray. “There’s greek salad too if you want it. And we can always buy something from the vendi if you don’t feel like eating this.”

  
“I’m just not that hungry. Can you drop it?” The red head responds.

  
“Yeah. I’m just saying you need to have energy, it’s the first day of school Cher. You have to eat something”

  
_She’s very protective of Cheryl,_ Veronica notices.

  
They introduce Veronica to the girl on Cheryl’s left, Josie McCoy. Josie sings and she also plays instruments, something Veronica is immediately interested in. Josie’s mother is also Washington State Senate, and while she doesn’t want to follow in her mother’s footsteps, having that background gives her an unwavering drive for success. Veronica knew a lot of important townsmen’s kids back in New York, and they’re usually snobby and shallow in comparison.

  
Josie is wise beyond her years, and carries herself with an air that could come off as intimidating. She has dark curly hair and doll like eyes, smells of Dior perfume, and wears multiple badges on her school blazer. Even the way she stood commended attention, probably good for stage presence. Veronica assumes she must have inherited that from her mother too.

  
“You guys are boring” Kevin deadpans. “Can we talk about something else?”

  
Josie rolls her eyes. “Let me guess, you have some hot new gossip to tell us? Because there’s much more to life than mindlessly gossiping Kev.”

  
“We need to fill new girl in on the trends here” Kevin says. He opens the water bottle on his tray and takes a gulp.

  
Josie chuckles. “Good luck. The students provide _endless_ gossip material.”

  
“Any questions about anything so far?” Betty asks.

  
“Well, is that guy.. Reggie, your boyfriend?” Veronica wonders aloud. She saw the blatant way they were checking each other out, but they weren’t acting too much like an official couple.

  
Betty shook her head nonchalantly, but the others almost spit out their food before laughing. Veronica turns to Betty. “You sure?”

  
“Of course I am. We’re just having fun”

  
“ _Fun_ ” Kevin rolls his eyes insinuatingly.

  
“I don’t want to her a word from you, mister. Remember that I still own you for another week.”

  
“Wait- why?” Cheryl asks.

  
“I caught him making out with Moose in the broom closet at Chapel.” Betty leans over the table excitedly. “And as a deal to keep my lips sealed, he agreed to be at my beck and call for about a month.”

  
“Totally unfair deal” Kevin adds in, but he’s smiling at the memory. “As if everyone doesn’t know about you and Reggie in the gazebo and in the locker room after the game last year, and I’ve yet to tell anyone how you and Adam hooked up at Archie’s birthday party this summer..”

  
“Oh my god!” Half mortified and half intrigued Cheryl slams her hands down on the table. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

  
“It wasn’t a big deal” Betty whines.

  
“Well it may not be a big deal to you Betty but that was the look of a boy all whipped, as well as I know one” Veronica almost giggles. She’s starting to learn a lot more of her schoolmates.

  
“Oh I don’t know!” Betty snaps. “I’m definitely not hooking up with Adam again though. I am purging all the crazy shit I did this summer from my life, it wasn’t me at all.”

  
“Fine Betts.”

  
Cheryl aimlessly picks the crust off her sandwich, not letting anyone notice her doing it. She keeps her gaze low and spots a silvery jewel on Veronica’s hand when it catches the light. It’s a diamond ring, silver, princess cut. It looked even more expensive than the other pieces of jewellery she was sporting. “Nice ring. Did a lover back in the big apple get it for you?”

  
“No way.” Veronica says briefly before repeating what she’s been telling herself for about a year. “I don’t really do dating.”

  
“Why? What happened? Does it have something to do with why you moved here?” Kevin blurts.

 

Veronica squints her eyes at him sharply. “I don’t remember signing a contract that said I have to report anything to you. You guys are trying to be welcoming and I’m being polite, in what world does that mean that you have the right to know anything about my personal life?”

  
She hadn’t planned that little speech, and the bite of bitterness slips out of her before she can stop it. Betty, who notices every little nuance of speech and flash of expression, looks at Veronica with a little sympathetic interest.

To try and ease the awkwardness to something easier, her other hand comes around to play with the ring on her finger a little anxiously. “My abuelita got it for my birthday this year. My parents nearly didn’t let me bring it to Washington, but I told them there was no way I’d leave New York without it.”

  
“It’s gorgeous” Josie says smoothly, taking a closer look at the ring on Veronica’s slender hand. Everyone nods, desperate to change the subject. “So, the news of Moose and Midge’s one millionth breakup has spread around Foxcroft and UCA.”

  
“Moose, as in the Moose Kevin made out with?” Veronica confirms, her face perking up. She wouldn’t have guessed the shy looking boy she just met previously would be holding this kind of scandal. _Well, everyone has a secret life other people don’t know about._

  
“The circle we run in is small, Lodge” Cheryl says with a smirk. “And no one is who everyone thinks they are. Want to know some more crazy things about this place?”

  
“Hit me.” Veronica nodded.

  
“The sweetheart Midge cheated on Moose with Fangs Fogarty. Moose’s dad is like, super aggressive and he would totally be against his son dating a guy, even though everyone knows he’s gay. Or at least bi. And Midge has been his girlfriend since we were like, twelve. So can you blame them?”

  
“That’s.. overwhelming” Veronica widens her eyes, and Betty stifles a giggle.

  
“Enough of Kevin related gossip” the blue eyed boy says flippantly, looking straight at Betty Cooper. “ _I_ heard that Reggie Mantle slept with that hot sophomore, Ginger Lopez.”

  
Betty raises her eyebrows mischievously. “She’s a virgin. Reggie wouldn’t know what to do with her, first base isn’t fun when you’ve already hit the home run.”

  
“How cute” Cheryl rolls her eyes. “I also heard that Miss Josie McCoy has been flinging all summer with Sweet Pea after he went into your dad’s guitar store in Alexandria. Are you guys dating or not?”

  
Josie laughed at that. “Please. The only time we spent together that wasn’t hooking up was when we ran into each other at the beach and decided to cycle together for fun. I would die before I got involved with someone as careless and impetuous as Sweet Pea. Who even told you that?”

  
“Ethel Muggs. She’s been bored of her good girl life all summer and is basically spewing tales online about all of us. I even saw her say that you had sex with one of your best friend’s boyfriends back in New York and had to run away because you couldn’t deal with it.”

  
Veronica’s eyes narrow. “Muggs? Well, she has some gall to spread ugly rumours about me, when I’ve never heard her name which means she probably means nothing to anybody in the real world.”

  
“True.” Kevin says. “I never paid too much attention to her before, but the girl really thinks she’s made herself some kind of empire putting out fake stories.”

  
“I have Math with her, and so do you” Betty announces. “Just a warning, she’ll probably try and talk to you and she can be really fucking aggressive.”

  
The others look a little intimidated but Veronica simply throws her hair back. “Good. If she tries something again I’ll deal with her.”

  
Betty shakes her head. “Please, Veronica it’s not worth it. The psycho bitch isn’t even a worthy adversary. You two aren’t equally yoked.”

  
“I’m just sick of everyone making assumptions about me and my life, and thinking they have a right to that. I had enough of that bullshit back in New York, so here it’s going to be different. Anyone that dares cross me in any way should know what I’m made of soon enough.”

  
“Well you’d be playing a chess game with yourself” Betty states plainly.

  
Chess is one of The Lodge’s favourite family activities, both literally and figuratively. Veronica almost keels at the irony. “If I’m the only one playing then I’m guaranteed to win, aren’t I?”

  
“Your deviousness amazes me” Kevin states slowly. “I don’t know if I should be terrified or amazed.”

  
Veronica smirks at her new friend. “Both.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


	2. chapter two

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hi everyone! I’m so flattered with all the support and feedback that I got from chapter 1! It’s been amazing and fun to write this, but even much more to share this with you all.
> 
>  
> 
> Chapter 2 is going to be a tad bit heavier, also more centred on our favourite boy Archie!
> 
> Once again thanks to yani & milly for the ideas they shared with me for this chapter and this fic in general. Love you girls. BIG THANKS to cloud64, leah, emily, vik, AK, gabbi, tiff, lizzie, ori, maisie and milly for the FABULOUS reviews. This is for you guys, all my love. —x

 

 

 

 

_don’t get too close, it’s dark inside_

_it’s where my demons hide_

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  
Archie can hear the noise of kids from the courtyard all the way to his empty dorm room, the thin walls and their obnoxiously loud voices contribute to that. Sometimes, he doesn’t mind the noise because it’s comforting. But right now he does, when it’s the first day back at school, less than a week to the homecoming dance and he’s yet to finish the song that he’s supposed to be performing.

  
He wrote a lot of it this summer, but also spent most of it trying to have a normal vacation between all the madness. Even with the built in heater, Washington’s chilly morning air is biting, and Archie has one of the sweaters his mother bought him over his uniform. It’s a little stuffy, but it feels comforting as he strums the strings between his fingers and sings softly, music sheets aligned next to the lyrics propped on the pillows of his bed, a ray of sunshine bleeding through the glass window illuminating his face as he focuses.

  
“will you call to tell me you’re alright.. cause I worry about you the whole night”

  
The melody sounds perfect, just the way he wants it too, but the next moment there’s some boisterous laughter from behind the door and his roommate barges in, banging the wall in a reckless manner and surprising Archie out of his state of trance so much he almost jumps.

  
“Andrews! What the _hell_ have you been doing up here, man? It’s the first day back and the chicks were there, dude this one girl.. Veronica. The one from New York? The transfer student? She is like.. the hottest thing I’ve ever seen. And here’s your sweet potato burrito by the way, like you asked.”

  
“Thanks” Archie nods, catching the paper bag. He’d already told the boys about missing their lunch period today, absolutely needing to finish this song before Wednesday at least. And Chuck, being the good friend that he is came bearing a takeaway lunch.

  
“Hey what’s up with Mantle and that Adam kid, anyway? He and the blonde prodigy looked like they wanted the earth to swallow them when he came to our table. Did they do something to the kid? Or.. in front of him?”

  
Archie lets out a breath through his nose. Chuck Clayton is certainly a fun person to be around, he’s a good co captain and a dependable roommate, but the guy has his downsides too. The shallow, careless downsides. Chuck flops down on his bed while reaching for some books, loosening his tie with the other hand.

  
“Who knows what Reggie and Betty get up to.” He answers simply.

  
“True” Chuck says, half smiling. “But maybe I should ask Veronica to the dance. She seemed interested, maybe she wants to”

  
Archie’s brows furrow. _Wants to what?_ But with Chuck, he can guess what it is and would rather not ask. “Who is this again?”

  
“You know, the one Cooper has been talking about. The girl she’s rooming with.”

  
“Uh-uh”

  
Archie can’t remember for the life of him when Betty talks about some new people, because she always talks about people, people she’s met, people she’s friends with and not friends with and her endless string of dates and flirts. He’s bad at names too, this one completely misses him.

  
“The _Lodge_ girl.”

  
“Oh.” Well that makes sense then, why Chuck is so excited about her. He’s never met or seen The Lodges only daughter but his dad does know Hiram Lodge distantly, and he’s a powerful man, so his daughter must be too. Archie remembers talking with Betty briefly about this on her parents swing in her backyard this summer, they had wondered why she would leave a perfect life to come be in a boarding school at Washington. He thinks about asking Chuck about that, but then the bell is ringing and they start scurrying around to get to class.

  
“Where the hell is my binder? I swear we should have cleaned this place up before summer” Chuck curses. Archie kind of wishes they did to, having the privilege of a bigger room with only one roommate would’ve been great had it not been with the two messiest people in the entirety of Foxcroft.

  
Archie shoves the rest of his burrito in his book bag to sneak at during a boring class, and throws off his sweater to shrug into the navy blue blazer.

  
“I’m off” Archie announces as he grabs his shoes from the pile underneath his bed and backing out the door.

  
“I’ll see you at varsity tryouts?” Chuck calls over his shoulder.

  
 _Shit, I almost forgot._ “Yeah! Definitely, see you then.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Archie has bio as his next class after lunch. And it’s the only one he shares with Jughead Jones, whom he’s been friends with ever since freshman year. At first, Archie was unsure about him, as no one at this school really does well with outsiders. That’s the word they used. Translation, students who aren’t backed up by their parents’ cushy safety net of cash in life. But the two had stricken up a conversation one day in the lunch room, found that they actually have a lot in common, and the rest is history.

  
“How’s your first day going?” Jughead asks, as their shoulders brush in the hallway of students bustling to the class they need to be at. “I know I’ve missed Foxcroft’s state of the art facilities. You know; hot water, a bed with a real mattress.”

  
Archie rolls his eyes and gives a grin. “Well, I haven’t done much but stay in. How’s that story you’re writing going?”

  
“Not good” Jughead scoffs, his arms crossed. “It’s like the wheels of inspiration stopped spinning and right now I could use a good muse. The only stories I’ve been hearing all day are of the new raven haired girl”

  
It’s then that both boys are distracted by the presence of other students making lots of noise down the hallway. Archie looks up into the sea of navy blue blazers and pale grey lockers, spotting Reggie Mantle and Moose Mason’s heads above everyone else. They’re taller than almost everyone else and it’s hardly the only reason everyone turns when they walk in a room. Reggie catches Archie’s eye and shouts over to him, shoving some kids out of the way to reach him.

  
“Oh great. It’s the rich kids from the goonies” Jughead mutters quietly, his scowl darkening.

  
Archie looks quickly between the two friends of his, on opposite ends of the totem pole, but is overtaken by Reggie slamming the locker next to him as he approaches. “Bro, you are _ready_ to make first line in Varsity. I’m not kidding dude you got ripped. Look at this arm, it’s diesel! How much you benching, like 220? 225? You gotta give me some tips man.”

  
“Okay then” Jughead observers the interaction and decides his talk with Archie is over, kicking off on his tattered old shoes. “See you in class Arch”

  
“Yeah I will!” Archie looks back, the smile on his face at Reggie’s cartoonish enthusiasm about some things wearing off as he sees his other friend leave.

  
“Woah- not so fast there Wednesday Adams!” Reggie reaches out and pulls Jughead back by the collar of his shirt singlehandedly, laughing when a noise of surprise escapes him. “You still wearing this damn thing huh” in one swift motion Reggie has the beanie, the crown shaped one, off his head and tossed to the hallway floor.

  
Archie’s jaw drops open and Jughead looks almost furious. But he’s held in a death grip and seeing as one of Reggie’s punches could probably take him out completely, it’s the best decision to stay put.

  
“Still being a damn idiot?” Jughead spits back, not one to stay defencelessness, even if it is verbally.

  
The features on Reggie’s strong face twitch for a second and Archie pushes him off immediately. The first day of school does not have to involve a classist case of bullying, Archie makes sure of it. “Dude just leave him alone, okay?” The red head says, louder so that Reggie knows he’s serious. “Come on, lets go to class”

  
Archie picks up Jughead’s fallen books while he reaches for his hat and stuffs it inside his bag, making sure that Reggie is turning back around with an unbelievable muttered under his breath before they start heading to the bio lab.

  
“Should’ve learned my lesson and not worn it. As if last year wasn’t traumatising enough” Jughead tries and explains himself, taking his books back from Archie.

  
“Hey it only got really bad that one time, and Betty sewed it back up after anyways.”

  
He watches Jughead let out a huff when he hears her name. Their eyes don’t meet but he’s never had a hard time understanding people, reading them, especially his friends. “He’s just a dick. And a tremendous idiot too.”

  
“Are you sure it has nothing to do with the fact that he and Betty are.. you know, hooking up?” Archie asks, his voice quiet and careful as they turn to enter the lab.

  
But Jughead stops and looks at him unbelievingly. “What would that have to do with anything? Why do I care who she’s involved with?”

  
“I’m just saying! That would be something that two people like you guys.. who have- gone through what you guys have gone through- might care about?”

  
Archie earns a look from his friend like he’s being ridiculous, and maybe he is, but he chuckles and lets the subject slide for now. Jughead will realise how he feels about Betty soon enough. You always do. When you’re in love, the realisation might not come right away but it will come at the perfect time. At least, that’s what Archie thinks.

 

 

 

 

 

 

x:x

 

 

 

 

 

 

“So” Betty whispers as soon as they’ve been given the go ahead to start their equations. She turns around in her seat and looks at Veronica excitedly. “Have you decided what extra curriculars you’re gonna do yet?”

  
Veronica sighs. Her head hurts and she’s pretty sure she’s never felt this tired. Her parents didn’t even let her spend one night in a hotel before heading straight to the school. She’s _exhausted_ , to say the least. “I really haven’t thought about it”

  
Betty’s face lights up, and on her other side Cheryl grins and leans over too. “Veronica, you have to try out for the field hockey team. It’s a must!”

  
“ _Shhh_!” The sharp noise of Mrs Hale’s disapproval at them surprises all three and Betty and Cheryl turn back in their seats. Not for long though.

  
“I’m on the team, Cheryl is, why won’t you try out?” Betty makes the most of her pleading green eyes.

  
Veronica makes a face. “Fine, I’ll consider it! I played field hockey sometimes with my dad’s friends’ daughters back at one of our country clubs.”

  
“Awesome!” Betty cheers, and Cheryl looks ecstatic too. “You would look so hot in the skirt we wear”

  
Veronica turns to the ginger with her eyebrows raised, the conversation halting to a pause for one moment. Cheryl looks innocent and Betty cocks her head questioningly at her cousin too, expecting an explanation which she doesn’t give.

  
“What?” Cheryl rolls her eyes flippantly. “Just saying”

  
Betty bursts into giggles that’s adorable and contagious so much so that the other two can’t tell her to zip it because they’re laughing too, trying and failing to conceal it by looking down at their books.

  
“If the three of you don’t start doing some math I’d gladly have you make it up this evening in detention” Mrs Hale says dryly from behind Veronica’s shoulder. She taps her blank notebook page with a wooden ruler, something that makes Veronica irked and move away slightly. “I suggest you ladies spend less time giggling and more time on your equations”

  
Around them the class laughs, and Veronica rolls her eyes. Betty goes red and immediately turns back around to work on the assignment, letting the laughter die until they leave class.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  
x:x

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  
It’s one in the afternoon and time for physical education. Archie takes his time stretching out, wringing his swimsuit before getting into it. The locker room smells of soap suds and sweat and masculinity, each boy disappearing to shower before trailing off into the indoor swimming pool. He’s watching his reflection as the clock ticks by and he’s sent into a memory. This summer, Cape May at his parents’ beach home, and the last time he went swimming. It was bright then, the sun kissing their skin. Betty and Jughead had followed him up to his parents’ holiday home for a whole week and it was possibly the best time that entire two months. They swam all day and watched old childhood movies on the big screen tv, constantly sipping on some type of concoction and nibbling icey cones of every flavour. They would spend every night playing around on the rooftop, watching the stars, attempting to play snooker, and talking endlessly.

  
Sometimes when Betty and Jughead would climb out of the pool to lay in the shade and read together, Archie swam alone, watching the waves crash on the shore, a feeling of beginning to an end. That week was over as soon as it started, and soon, Archie knew why his parents even agreed to let three teenagers stay at a Cape May beach house together.

  
It was the separation. The fights, the missing nights, the empty house he was beginning to feel sad in so Mary and Fred had to send him out otherwise Archie might’ve not had any kind of summer experience at all.

  
 _so mom’s just gone, then?_ Archie gaped at the office where his mother once worked, the family portrait she adored from when he was little, the pottery and stylish sculptures all gone. They spent the whole week moving her stuff.

  
 _she has a place upstate, son._ Fred has said, as if that made things any better. Honestly, Archie doesn’t think he knows how their situation could’ve gotten better- but this certainly wasn’t it at all. _she asked you to come over for dinner tonight._

 

“Archie” the soft voice behind him calls. Archie looks up in the reflection and sees Moose standing there. “You okay?”

  
He clears up his throat. “Yeah. What about you?”

  
“Fine” Moose reaches into his locker to get his forgotten swim cap and avoids Archie’s eyes, voice laced with its lie. “Midge and I had a good summer. My parents had another opening in LA and we uh, we went together. It was fun.”

  
He squints his eyes, hands tight on the sink behind him as he leans on it. Last year didn’t end well when somebody had spread an inkling rumour that Moose Mason, star athlete and resident-relationship-guy _made out_ with Kevin Keller in the school’s chapel, of all places. It was only a rumour, a distant one, but any talk is talk here and with a circle small enough the word could get back to Moose’s parents. He had confided in Archie one night, the last Wednesday before summer. Drunk off his ass and tears into the beer bottle, sobbing something incoherent and all Archie could do was let him sleep and sympathise the next morning.

  
“So you’re back to pretending then?” Archie asked. When there’s no reply, just a twitch in his lips Archie furrows his brows and speaks again. “Don’t you ever get tired of it?”

  
“Dude you know my dad would do the worst if he knew- if he knew that I was..”

  
“You still haven’t talked about that night. And- it’s completely up to you, but I guess I spent all summer worrying if you were miserable and maybe if you’d finally told them.”

  
“Of course not” The tone in his voice signalises that the statement is final, and seemingly would be forever.

  
“Well..” Archie takes a step and tries to find his words so that he doesn’t step on them. He knows how hard it’s been for his friend, and that maybe _he_ hasn’t even acknowledged it. All he wants is to be there for him. “You know that you being into guys, anyone, it wouldn’t matter to us right?” He sighs slowly when Moose doesn’t look convinced, still a flicker of fear behind those big brown eyes. “You’re Moose dating Midge now, and you could be Moose dating anyone else- we love Moose.”

  
Moose takes Archie’s assurance and gives the smallest of nods, a worrying gulp and distress written all over his face. Archie smiles at him warmly one last time before leaving the locker room.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In the full length pool Archie takes long, steady strides through every lap and it feels nice to have the water constraining against his muscles and challenging it slightly. A good kind of warm up, since he has varsity lacrosse tryouts in about forty five minutes. The prospect of a new game season just hasn’t sunk in yet, he’s not in the right head space to be competitive and sharp and spend hours in the gym before dawn and more hours on the field at evening practice. He’s still stuck in a sleepless summer night and dusky pink skies.

  
At the same time though, Archie feels like he has tension just shivering under his skin ready to erupt any second and that part of him- the part that’s been cooped up for almost a whole month, feels excited to run and feel his heart thudding wildly behind his chest on the field.

  
He finally pushes himself out of the pool and eyes the intimidated freshmen that were watching him swim, shaking his wet hair and wringing it with a dry towel.

 

 

 

 

 

  
Back in the locker room everyone seems to have taken off fast enough, the crowd of Reggie and Chuck probably swept away to kick around on the field early before tryouts. It’s why he finds Jughead there, inspecting himself in the same mirror Archie stood at before. His half dry hair curly and drooping over his blue eyes.

  
“Dude-“ his eyes bug out of his head and he’s frozen on the spot seeing that gnarly black and blue covering his friend’s torso. “How the fuck did you get that?”

  
Jughead spins around and tries _uselessly_ to cover the burning bruise but it’s louder than any words unspoken in the room. He chuckles a nervous laugh, covering. “Archie. Probably took a fall somewhere too hard”

  
Archie smiles a little, but he isn’t fooled. “No, seriously Jughead what happened?”

  
A long pause, his arms dropping to the side. And then, “My dad. But it’s just temporary.. don’t worry”

  
“Temporary?” Archie repeats. “How and when did he do this?”

  
“Look man lower your voice” Jughead says, frustratedly grabbing a shirt to cover the bruise. He guides Archie by the shoulder to a bench, sighing deeply. “He was drunk. I was there.”

  
Of course. Maybe it started as a coping mechanism, like it does for a lot of people, but Archie also knows how fast that can escalate. Of course, it’s the poison that people put in their bodies and he hates every part of it.

  
“Well-“ he casts his eyes between the floor and Jughead’s face and something inside him is hurting and breaking. “Screw him. You should stay with me during breaks.”

  
Archie glances down at his watch, one of his grandfather’s vintage Rolexes, and sees tryouts have already started by fifteen minutes. He shouldn’t have spent as much time in the pool as he did.

  
“Look, it’s not that easy Archie.” He sighs, rubbing his eyes frustratedly. “But.. I guess that’s why I would rather stay in this place. As much as it sucks sometimes and as many assholes that walk through here, it’s still better than living at home and going to another school. Just- don’t tell anyone about it, okay? Especially not Betty.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

x:x

 

 

 

 

 

 

  
It’s grey outside and everyone feels significantly underdressed in their thin workout gear. The school field is definitely big enough to accommodate probably two whole football games, but since one half is under maintenance for the time being, both UCA’s field hockey team and Foxcroft’s winning lacrosse varsity tryouts are on opposite ends of the other half of the field.

  
Veronica has her arms crossed as she walks next to Betty, wind blowing in their hair. “So, how intense exactly are you guys? Is this a sport you take seriously?”

  
“Very” Betty replies, her eyes wide and serious.

  
“Great. You could’ve told me that before I put my name on the list and will end up completely humiliating myself in front of pre pros, Betty”

  
Her arm shoots out to touch Veronica’s, reassuring her. “Relax, it’s not that serious. We have won championships, but trust me no one is a pre pro here.”

  
“Says the girl that’s gunning for varsity captain” Cheryl announces, walking up next to both of them. She has her rich red hair tied back into a ponytail and made the unnecessary move to wear a choker under her high collar ralph lauren t shirt.

  
Veronica turns to the blonde with raised eyebrows of disbelief, but she only shakes her head before sitting down to stretch. Veronica and Cheryl do the same. “Only because my mom wants me to. My sister used to be the captain, so it’s kind of a family thing. I’m not even that good.”

  
Veronica isn’t exactly nervous. If she makes the team, it’ll shut Covington up and maybe distract her enough. And if she doesn’t, she’s not losing anything either. Back in Spence cheerleading was something she enjoyed because she was good at it, she liked bettering herself and always working towards a new goal for herself. But it also served as some reputation boost, which she doesn’t really care about now. In Spence she was a kid wanting to fit in and complete that perfect lie everyone believed about her, now she could care less what anyone thinks. She has enough reputation, she doesn’t need to be climbing social ladders anymore. Being back on the field makes her a little reminiscent though, and a part of her wonders how anyone would react if she did a tumble run right now.

 

“Okay everybody listen up!” A young woman wearing cut off shorts, caramel hair, kind eyes, Veronica assumes is Coach Clavell from the tryout sheet approaches the crowd of girls. “It’s time to get this started... today I’m going to see how you handle basic stick skills first. You know, passing, pushes pulls and hits. So everyone get in a line here and be prepared for your turn.”

 

Betty’s right, and the tryout isn’t taken lightly. Coach Clavell cuts about half the girls who can’t even hold their stick right, which Sheila whispers are all wannabes who are trying to climb the social ladder. Veronica had basically zero preparation right before this, but she manages to stay in past the first stage.

  
The second section is just as brutal, when Coach Clavell breaks those of them left into pairs to test how good their passes are. Two thirds of the remaining girls don’t make it through that cut.

  
“Not too bad, cheerleader” Betty whispers to her, bumping their shoulders together. “You made it to the end, you might even get on the team. I think Clavell likes you.”

  
“Gotta thank my dad for years of forced games, huh? Guess they payed off.” She pants back, effectively exhausted by now.

  
They patter off as tryouts almost end, now Coach is asking the remaining girls to score as many goals as they can and see who could have a shot at which position. Veronica swings her head back as she takes a gulp of water.

  
“I think you’re just good at anything you try” Betty says honestly. It’s only then that Veronica notices the group of them are sitting well within sight of the lacrosse players tryouts. She does some stretches, while noticing out of the corner of her eye that the boys are watching them too.. well watching her.

  
She can’t stop the grin that covers her mouth at their gawking faces, so she stands up and bends over, putting her hands flat on the floor in a stretch that makes her skirt ride up significantly.

 

The minute Betty asks what she’s doing is when they hear laughter and whistles coming from the lacrosse players and Veronica stands up, turning back around to grin playfully at them.

 

“ _Oh my god!_ ” The girls erupt into laughter and some of them clapped too, encouragingly. “Veronica, Chuck Clayton is totally looking at you” one of the nameless other students tells her. “And he’s up next.”

  
“What do I care?” Veronica sighs, looking down to inspect her manicure. She missed having the oxblood colour but this school won’t allow anything more than a basic french manicure.

  
She’s feeling a lot exhausted, and the sweat and dirt on the field is starting to stick to her skin. She doesn’t share the same interest with the other girls to watch boys score goals and brag about it anyway, so she decides it’s time to leave.

  
“I’m gonna go and clean up, Blondie. I’ll see you guys in the room.” She waves off with a tight smile, wiping the back of her hands on her skirt.

  
Their faces fall visibly. “Sure, we’ll see you later. Don’t get lost!” Betty nods.

  
“I’ll try.” Veronica shrugs into one of the hoodies she brought and leaves the scene. Finally, she’s going to get alone time. It feels like forever and she kind of wants to scream after the crazy day; crazy summer, she’s had. So she’s relieved when she’s back in the empty halls with colourful glass paintings as walls that remind her of Sunday church, and the bursting comfort she gets from flopping down on this bed that’s supposedly hers with most of her clothes laid out on it from earlier.

 

 

 

 

 

About five minutes later Archie Andrews shows up, his helmet in hand, panting like he’s been running all the way from the locker room. “Hey guys. Sorry I’m late- what’d I miss?”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

x:x

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The entire Foxcroft and Upper Columbia Academy student body has a combined dinner every night in the grand dining hall, which is apparently a big deal as a big deal can get. Everyone wears their night uniforms and sometimes there’s speeches, especially since it’s the first dawn of school semester.

  
Veronica showers before the dinner, going through the tedious process of taking her long day’s reapplied makeup off, keeping away all the jewellery and her headband, and tossing the itchy uniform in a waste basket, then standing under the faucet to wash and condition her hair. It feels like ecstasy, feeling the grime of the trip to Washington wash away, leaving her all fresh and clean smelling.

  
As she steps out of the shower though, she catches a glimpse of her reflection in the mirror. It’s the first time seeing herself this naked since what happened. Back then her body wasn’t too different, but it did feel unlike herself. Now she drops the towel and stares at herself, what’s left there.

  
She’s lost about twenty pounds since then, and it looks good. It looks like her old self.

  
But it doesn’t feel the same.

 

Looking at her, no one would know what’s happened. Just a teenage girl, the prettiest, richest, most perfect one in the room. And anyone else is just lucky to even try and measure up. She leans harder against the mirror, feeling her forehead against the glass and watching as the little scar on her lower belly meets its reflection, and she closes her eyes wishing she could disappear.

  
She doesn’t even let her mind go to the other scars they’ve left.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  
About an hour later everyone’s dressed and she walks with Betty, Toni and Sheila to the grand dining hall. They wander around the hallways and linger in some rooms just to chit chat and waste time. Veronica feels like she needs to clear her mind. She’s thinking about everyone back home, all the problems and people she just left behind and what they must be thinking.

  
The four girls enter the dining hall and also the door that leads to the orchestra room, Betty says again that the choir often plays when they have special occasions and such. For a moment Veronica lingers on the door, remembering what Covington said. After thinking about it though, she grabs the doorknob and opens it slowly, telling the other girls she’ll look for them in the tables. The room is clean and everything is organised to perfection, it’s like a kaleidoscope of memories and emotions surge through the instruments into her soul if they could tell a story of all the songs of tragedy.

  
She sees the grand piano. And she can picture her mother getting her ready for a piano recital, wearing the silky white robe, pure and holy, smelling like Chanel and seeing diamonds on a Sunday morning. She can see her father sitting at the head of the breakfast table reading the morning newspaper with those glasses she thought were so funny on him as a kid. She can see her seven-year-old self knocking on their door when she was terrified of the thunder, they would let her fall asleep between them and nothing could hurt her. She was safe.

  
Her fingers touch the shining cover and she could feel tears threatening to start running down her cheeks. She lifts the cover and only lightly, caresses the keys. She’s holding it so cautiously like it’s the most fragile thing in the world. But then she realises that it is. It’s something her and her mother shared. Something her father would sit and have conversations about, congratulate her, kiss her on the forehead. As stupid and naive as it is, she still wants that.

  
She blinks a few times to make the blurry visions go away and remembers all the times she was playing. All these emotions which could never be described. Maybe it was like flying. Maybe it was like traveling to somewhere only she knew. In any case, it felt different than a lot of her life had. When she was playing she was never alone but at the same time she was. When listening to all the wonderful sounds she could forget all her troubles and fears. She put her heart into every song she played, while goosebumps appeared on her skin.

  
That’s when Veronica made the decision. She’s going to start playing again.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

x:x

 

 

 

 

 

 

  
A beautiful sound, one Archie hadn’t heard in a long time, flooded through the dining hall. This sound was delicate sleigh bells and wind chimes mixed into one magical combination. Archie can feel the sadness of the music though, seep into his body and spread through his veins. The song is one he’s familiar with and draws his curiosity more and more. He slowly heads in the direction of the orchestra room door, somehow afraid that one wrong step would make the music disappear forever.

  
As soon as he can even reach for the door, Archie feels someone’s hand on his left shoulder.

  
“Come on dude we’re waiting for you!” Reggie tells him, a blissful smile on his face.

  
He wants to go back and glances at the door, but then he’s being led to their table. Betty, Cheryl, Chuck and some other kids already seated, and the feast tonight smells delicious since he hasn’t had a proper meal all day.

  
“Hey Arch, oh that seat’s actually for Veronica-“ Betty stops short when Reggie all but shoves Archie into the last seat that was supposed to be reserved for Veronica, and Archie shrugging unknowingly.

  
“Don’t worry B- she’ll sit with us!” Sheila calls from the other table over, waving excitedly.

  
Archie raises his eyebrows. “Yeah hey. So.. Chuck said you had something to talk to me about?”

  
Betty laughs and flicks her ponytail back, knowing with a pleased little thump in her heart that Reggie is next to Archie and he’s watching her. “Nothing important. Just wanted to know how your song’s going. You are still gonna perform at homecoming right?”

  
“Of course” Archie snorts “If I can finish it on time. It’s.. oh whatever, tryouts.. how’d you do? Think you’re making varsity?”

  
“Well I better hope to god I do, I don’t want momma Cooper ringing my ear off about it!” Betty rolls her eyes as everyone laughs, and then they dive into the meal discussing who’s going to make each team and how the first day has been.

 

 

 

 

 

 

  
x:x

 

 

 

 

 

 

Warden Jack comes into the boys room right before bedtime, finding Archie and Chuck already ready and reading in their beds. He grunts like he expects them to be in trouble and warns them again what will happen if they sneak out, even though they’ve heard it like a hundred times.

  
The old man hesitates before closing the door. “Well goodnight to you two then. Remember you know where I am..”

  
Archie nods, the blankets up to his nose trying not to smile. “We do.”

 

  
He doesn’t sleep though. The room is only half dark with the field lights streaming in, his ears straining to hear any sound of Jack outside. He listens as Chuck shifts in his bed and then he puts a pillow on his head to block the light. He hears light footsteps as someone next door opens a door and the sound of water running in the bathroom. By then Archie eventually puts the covers down and reaches for his guitar. It’s too bright, and the worry of not finishing this song is itching as his mind whirls with thoughts that won’t rest.

  
Finally he’s sure Jack is asleep in his own room, and Archie slides out of bed and softly pads out into the hall and down the stairwell. Their lounge is lit by the flickering light someone has left on, but the room seems deserted and Archie slips past it until he’s outside. He finds himself walking until he’s exactly at the spot he needs, the fountain that’s centre of the campus. It’s quite far from his building but the sound of water has always calmed him, somehow making it seem like he’s back at the beach house and things were still on the verge of imploding.

  
Time moves slowly too, trickling on. He doesn’t know what time it is anymore. It’s only measured by the way it gets colder under his sweatshirt as the night grows darker, and his fingers grow tired from strumming.

  
Archie can feel that same frustration in his chest, because he can’t get it _right_ , the right line, the right tune, he wants something that’s special and different from the other songs he wrote. He really thought coming out here would help, and it is, the fountain calming him down as he sits fidgeting, but the inspiration still just isn’t _there_. He squeezes his eyes shut then. Prays to the gods above that when he opens them a miracle will happen and something will come along and be exactly what he’s searching for. It feels like forever in those matter of seconds, and then he finally opens his eyes. And there’s a girl there.

 

“That was really good” she says. Archie feels like a disaster about to happen because his mouth practically drops, he’s never seen anyone so beautiful in all his life.

  
 _She looks like an angel,_ is his first thought. She’s standing across the fountain, gently backlit in a way that made it look like she’s _shining_ , her dark hair making a halo around her face and swishing down her back beautifully. She has on a bizarre lace and silk slip that whatever it is, clings to her body and shows off her curves to perfection. She turns her head slightly and laughs as Archie stares, the sound of her laugh as perfect as the rest of her.

  
“Oh um.. yeah. Thank you. It’s really not.”

  
“It sure was” Veronica murmurs, and his eyes catch hers. “The little part I heard. Are you a musician?”

  
“No” he half chuckles, adding uselessly. “Just a guy”

  
She looks a little amused, and also curious, taking a wary step close so that the space between them lessens. “So who’s it for? The song”

  
Archie looks at her sharply, but she’s completely serious and a part of him wonders if she’s real. “Well it’s not about anyone in particular. Just people- and life.”

  
“Well whoever it is must be lucky” she points out, looking around at the view of campus and she sighs. Suddenly Archie doesn’t feels so much more interested than he has all day. “I can’t really sleep. Something about the air here.”

  
He laughs lightly. “Yeah, this place can do that to you. We’ve all had a number of sleepless nights.”

  
The air is still between them, water running, eyes searching. She takes another small step and eventually is standing close enough to be held if he reached, but still too far away. “So tell me, what is your song about? Seriously”

  
“It’s more about the things that people do. The mistakes.. the mess ups, all things they still do even though.. even though it ruins everything around them.”

  
“Which is what?” Veronica looks at Archie from the corner of his eye, and then shivers, the frost catching up to her. “People don’t make ‘mistakes’ on purpose. That’s what makes them mistakes.”

  
He supposes she’s right, even though this stranger has absolutely no clue what he’s talking about. It’s then that Archie notices the small delicate pearls that rest in the hallow of her throat, the stunning dark eyes that are deep enough to drown in, he realises how rare it is for two student to not know each other in this small school. Which means she must be new. Definitely not a freshman, he’s sure, and that’s when all the ignored talk and mentions of _new girl_ clicks in his mind. _It’s her. It’s her, Veronica Lodge._

  
“My name’s Archie. Andrews. You must be Veronica, the new transfer student from Spence School. You’re rooming with my friend Betty.. aren’t you Hiram Lodge’s daughter, and like a big socialite in New York?”

  
Archie can see the smirk in her lips twitch which makes him realise he just totally ran his mouth. “No” Veronica replies, turning her back to him. She smiles over her shoulder and starts walking back, presumably to her dorm. “Just a girl.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i hope you guys enjoyed, remember to leave your thoughts on what happened.. [P/S : if you left a review before if you could copy and paste it that’d be great ♥️] and what your theory is on what happened to veronica? I’m really interested to know.
> 
> pls feel free to come and interact with me on tumblr too, @ff16xo . ❤️ I love answering any questions  
> ‘till next time


	3. chapter three

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hii i’m finally back with the third chapter! sorry this took twice the time the others did, but it is longer in word count so, hehe. 
> 
>  
> 
> fair warning ; this chapter contains a lot of drinking, substance use and mentions of things that might be triggering to you if you have an eating disorder of any sort. i should make this aware ♥️ 
> 
>  
> 
> as you all know yani helped me to put together this fabulous chapter, she’s also responsible for many little details so BIG thanks to her. milly, tiff, gabbi, emily, lodgeandrews, ggx, ceii03 and anon9- all of your comments made me smile! you have no idea how motivating it is to see feedback, thank you guys sm. It should also be mentioned that ~one if you guy’s theories on what happened to veronica is correct.. hehe.. keep reading to find out ♥️

 

 

 

_all my friends are heathens take it slow, wait for them to ask you who you know_

_please don’t make any sudden moves_

_you don’t know the half of the abuse_

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chuck asks Veronica to the homecoming dance. Just like that, right in the middle of breakfast when she’s walking up to the buffet table to get ranch style eggs and the fresh chocolate croissants with Betty. It doesn’t exactly surprise her, and she’s walking backwards towards the buffet table with one hand in Betty’s, and tosses her hair with a grin. Inside she’s already dancing. “Okay then.. but let’s skip all the corsages and matching outfits, kay?”

 

Around them is the buzz of light chatter from students, heads bowed over their unfinished homework and half-eaten trays of food, pretending not to watch. It smells like freshly pressed orange juice in there, and the hue that lingers after it rains lingering in the big glass windows.

“Okay” Chuck agrees, as he’s watching her his wide smile gets bigger. His tie is a little out of place and he still looks a little sleepy, since it’s so early, but cheerful. “Damn, you’re sexy Veronica... okay, I’ll see you then I guess”

  
“Tonight” she plays with the ends of her hair noticing all the looks from everyone in the dining hall, some whispers and pointed looks at the two of them. Veronica feels relieved that Chuck seems to have one intention in mind, and it’s to have fun with her, hopefully nothing more. Even as she’s enjoying all this, playful flirting and innocent dance dates, she has a barrier over her heart that’s become natural at this point, holding back and never letting anyone in.

  
She lifts her plate for the cook to put some eggs on and frowns a little feebly. If only she could enjoy getting asked out like every other teenage girl, but her thoughts are interrupted when Betty kicks the back of her shin and causes a yelp.

  
“Ow! What was that for?” She turns around to see the blonde with even bigger eyes than usual, leaning in like she’s scandalised about something.

  
“Chuck asked you to the dance! Isn’t that exciting?” Betty says, all obvious and thrilled.

  
Veronica sighs, turning back to face the front of the line. She’s wearing knee high socks and they’re kind of itchy in the warm dining hall. “Seriously Betty, it’s not a big deal. By the way, I met your friend... Archie last night.”

  
She wouldn’t have described it so causally, the way he sat there with the stars and sky behind him, and the way she felt bare and herself standing there in front of him. Even though they’d only just met, it felt like a part of her had already opened up in a way she hadn’t for so long. Because it’s been so long since she knew who herself is.

  
“Last night?” Betty’s forehead creases, brow quizzical. “Weren’t you.. asleep?”

  
“Uh hello, I told you guys I was heading out to clear my head. You were fast asleep though-“ she reaches for an apple and the conversation sits for a second before Veronica hits a realisation and turns back to her friend, slightly amused. “Or _weren’t_ you?”

  
“I may have perfected the art of slipping out past bedtime” she replies cheekily, skipping ahead of Veronica for the pancakes. “But looks like you did too.”

  
“Hey! No skipping, aren’t you a prefect? So where did you go last night?”

  
“Don’t tell anyone but the lounge in Foxcroft’s dorms are way more comfortable than ours. And private, too” Betty states plainly. She casts her eyes someplace behind them to address the unspoken, and Veronica sees where they land on a certain sleepy looking black haired boy, his pouty lips in a frown as he rests his head on the table. They curve into a smile when he sees them looking, though.

  
“You’re unbelievable” Veronica scoffs, hand reaching out to Betty’s plate. “Also that’s my brownie!”

 

 

 

  
The two of them carry their trays to the designated breakfast table, they have assigned seating charts now that switch up every month and thankfully the group she’s with is familiar and seemingly chill morning people. “Good morning, huh?” Kevin winks, a half eaten apple in his left hand and the other jotting away on his workbook.

  
Veronica makes a face in return. “Please tell me it didn’t look like I was sending any false signals” she begs “I mean, he _is hot_ , but this isn’t supposed to be anything serious, right?”

  
“Chuck Clayton asking a girl out? It’s rarer than a blood moon..” Sheila starts, but then she relents and grins inconspicuously. “No, probably not at all. At least from my excellent judgement he isn’t looking for anything more than a date to the dance, Veronica”

  
“That said” Cheryl sits up straighter, eyes bright. “Tonight should be a blizzard of _sinful decadence_ shall I say, in UCA’s dorm considering Monroe isn’t back in time for the party.”

  
Veronica stops peeling the paper off her brownie and furrows her brows. “Uh, who’s Monroe and why do you think everyone is gonna be fucking while she’s gone?”

  
Betty almost spits out her orange juice, while Kevin laughs out carelessly and causes a few turning heads in their direction. “I don’t _think_ , I _know_ ” Cheryl claims. “Monroe is our warden and well- let’s just say she practically looks for things to give us detentions for. I mean if she wasn’t wearing a staff uniform it’d be called stalking.”

  
“So why isn’t she here?”

  
“She went to Ecuador for vacation, and her flight’s been cancelled. No one knows when she’ll be back though.” Cheryl informs them.

  
“You know no wonder I was having such a great first week back” Betty sighs, her head thrown back thoughtfully. “Soon we’re all gonna get nagged to death.”

  
Kevin laughs into his orange juice again while Veronica feels slightly nervous about having someone following her every move, the rules here are strict enough but having someone actively enforce them is a whole other spectrum of stressful. “Honestly, I’m a lot more interested in our dresses than discussing the evil witch. What colours are you guys wearing?”

  
“I know what I’m wearing” Betty scoffs, twirling a strand of blonde hair absently. “My mom specifically bought me a new white dress- which is hideous, by the way, and I can’t believe my mother is still choosing my clothes when I’m sixteen years old. I don’t even live with her!”

 

“Oh Veronica hand the girl your brownie, she’s turning into _Buzzkill Betty_.” Kevin sneers, his eyes looking with innate sympathy.

  
“You give her _your_ brownie I’m starving!”

  
She doesn’t think anything of her words until noticing the fastest exchange between both cousins, but they glance back down like nothing happened.

  
“Look I’ve slept over your house before” Kevin states, an unsure shrug following. “I came out alive”

  
“Yeah, you almost didn’t for putting your whites in the colours.”

  
“Uh that was me” Cheryl reminds them.

  
“Face it Kev, the only person that’s more evil than Monroe, is my mom” Betty sighs, and they can feel the slight shake of the table when she swings her legs under it.

  
“Well then you clearly haven’t met my parents” Veronica adds, and realises she’s said too much by the way movement slightly freezes, but it’s the truth anyway. “I mean they say they’ve been through hell, but I can bet that’s also the birth place on their passports.”

  
Laughing, Betty taps the plate of brownies and sprinkles and pushes it towards her. “Okay, you _do_ need this more than I do.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In the end they don’t even need to read the list Coach Clavell put on the bulletin board to know who made the team. There’s a small crowd of girls bunched in front of the sports’ board, and as soon as they see Betty, Cheryl and Veronica approaching there’s some spontaneous applause and happy shrieking.

  
Toni detaches herself from the crowd and strides over to them, a heavy camera slung around her neck. “You guys made it!” She announces, and snaps a very candid photo of the three of them amidst a moment of joyous laughter.

  
“All three of us.. your tryout was pretty bad Veronica, but I’m so happy we’re all in!” Cheryl sighs, practically bouncing on her feet.

  
Veronica scoffs, even though she knows her tryout was the least prepared and not put together, but she chuckles it off and joins the happy hug with sighs of relief, and then Toni pulls Veronica and Betty over to the noticeboard. “Come see who the rest of the team is.. it’s a strong one”

 

Veronica makes her way to the front of the crowd and is scanning the list when she becomes aware of loud hoots and yells of congratulations coming from the boys on her left. She only takes a glance at the group of them huddled together when she catches the guy from last night. He’s landing a high five with one of his teammates in the middle of the crowd, a satisfied smile on his face. That’s the first time she sees him smile, not in the glittery night and shadows bouncing off the fountain water, and the way he looks so carefree- it just makes her heart swell.

 

“Hey” it’s him who calls over to her. Veronica almost looks around to see that he isn’t talking to anyone else. “Congratulations”

 

“Thanks” she says lightly. She doesn’t know why it suddenly feels hard to breathe. “Congratulations yourself. I guess.. we’ll be seeing each other on the field then?”

  
“We will” Archie agrees, and he smiles at her like he’s already hoping for it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

  
x:x

 

 

 

 

 

  
That afternoon is the girls’ first official field hockey practice as the new varsity team, and then everyone will spend all evening getting ready for the homecoming dance that night. There’s music playing from Cheryl’s iPhone that’s left on the bathroom sink, the bass amplified as they scurry around getting ready for practice. This is Betty and Cheryl’s third year on the team, but Toni’s first- so Betty is spending a particular amount of time doing her ponytail as she says it needs to be perfect.

 

“All done! Mwah, you’re ready now” The blonde announces, grinning proudly at the mirror.

  
Toni just rolls her eyes but inside she’s excited, it’s taken a lot of getting used to all the tribulations of a new school, her fair share of classist in-crowd students and their words, and confronting her own biases when it comes to her privileged peers. Betty and Sheila were the first ones that made her feel welcome. They didn’t care what her last name was or the uneducated background she came from, they loved her and more importantly; something not everyone at the school does, treat her like an equal.

 

“You know what else you need?” Betty inquires, tapping her chin thoughtfully. “A headband to keep any flyaways back. Come on!”

 

She stands up and pulls a reluctant Toni along, both girls disappearing back into their room. Veronica bites her lower lip slightly as she applies a coat of mascara in the mirror, making them look longer and curlier than before. In the reflection she can see Cheryl moving around the back of the bathroom. She doesn’t really know Cheryl yet, and it’s the first time they’ve been alone together without Betty.

  
“So, are you into makeup too?” The red headed girl wonders aloud, turning around and perching herself on the sink to watch Veronica put her light makeup on.

  
“I guess” she replies casually. “My mom’s taken me to New York fashion week ever since I was like eight. And for a few years we went backstage too, and I got to see how they do it on the models. Sometimes we had professional makeup artists for parties too.”

  
Cheryl leans closer on the sink, until her hands and legs are barely inches away from Veronica while looking at her imploringly. “That sounds amazing. My mom gets mad if I wear more than a little of it out, she’s so ridiculous. You have to show me what products you have.”

  
Veronica nods just as Cheryl reaches around blindly for a toiletries bag, and Veronica’s heart panics. “Is this yours?”

  
“Wait- no!” But in her haste of pulling the bag out of Cheryl’s hand, it falls to the floor with a heavy noise, and her nightmare unravels as all the contents of the bag spill out.

 

The sudden desperation in Veronica’s voice makes Cheryl snap out of her girlish trance. She focuses properly on the things scattered on the cold tile floor. Before she could though, Veronica bends down to snatch it up.

  
She looks at Cheryl with a glare. “What’s wrong? You’re gonna run and tell everyone now?”

  
“Veronica are you on something?” Cheryl asks her frantically.

  
“What? No.. I mean maybe. It’s- medicinal.” She lies. She was expecting Cheryl to react differently but she’s either clueless or hasn’t put the pieces together yet.

  
Her relief only lasts temporarily though, as the Blossom girl isn’t one to drop things lightly. “How often do you take those pills?” She asks further.

  
“How often do you skip meals when they don’t check your attendance?” Veronica counters in return.

  
There’s an awkward silence between them. Veronica continues to pick up her things and stuff them in the bag, wondering wether she made things worse by bringing up something secret and Cheryl stares down at her in deep thought contemplating wether or not to tell the truth. Veronica’s really the first person that’s ever noticed- and has been brave enough to say it to her face, not even her cousin Betty would do that. With a heavy sigh she lets the fact sit with her.

  
“That depends.. during a good week I would skip three breakfast meals. Monday, Wednesday and Saturday are the days no teachers check in. During a week when I feel bigger- well if I can get away with it I’ll skip every dinner. How did you even know this?” She asks truthfully.

  
For some reason Veronica isn’t surprised to hear that. It’s not often that people as messed up as them don’t have a coping mechanism, or a sense to get an iron grip on any kind of semblance of control at all.

  
Cheryl takes a deep breath, her eyes hazy by the red of her shoes swinging above the dark blue floor, she prepares herself for the judgement but doesn’t get it.

  
“I only take them two at a time if I do, but recently it’s been more often. Sometimes I feel like crap, and it makes me drift off into nothing. Which is better.” She whispers. This is the first real person she’s admitted her drug use to. Not even her parents knew about the pills, she stopped using them more than needed during the period of constant doctor appointments so no one would find out. Her friends back in Spence just assumed she was a social drug user like them. It feels oddly liberating to finally tell someone, even in this harsh place where she feels unsafe and unsure, but it’s someone who didn’t judge her right away.

  
When Cheryl doesn’t say anything she takes a step closer and looks at her. They stare into each other’s eyes for a moment not knowing exactly what to say.

  
“You probably think I’m crazy for doing something like this to myself” Veronica whispers slowly.

  
For the first time ever Cheryl looks at Veronica with pity in her eyes. “No I don’t think it’s crazy. Just please don’t take anymore of those today, and especially since we’ll be drinking.” she says as she reaches out for her hand.

  
“We will?” Veronica raises her perfect brow. “Won’t there be chaperones at the dance or something?”

  
“Trust me, be careful at the parties here. You don’t know how crazy it’ll get but it will be.” She pauses for a moment, breath heaving as her eyes linger to the door separating them with the other girls. “And I won’t tell anyone if you don’t.. say anything about me. At least not to my cousin”

  
“Girls! Come on let’s get this practice started!” Betty’s cheery voice shouts from inside the room. Both of them almost jump away and Veronica shoves the bottle of pills as far and deep into her bag as possible.

  
“Your secret’s safe with me” She whispers in return. Veronica quietly thinks of all the ways this could inevitably fail for both of them and she breaks inside. She already knows she wouldn’t forgive herself if anything bad happens to this girl but at least for right now- that’s where their secret stays.

 

 

 

 

 

  
x:x

 

 

 

 

  
The girls spend a longer time than the boys in the end. Veronica thought Coach Clavell would go easy on them for this first practice, but apparently the first game against Illyria Preparatory isn’t taken lightly. However she knows tonight is going to be fun, and has completely ridden any bad vibes as she slings her duffel bag over her shoulder and clambers into the locker rooms with the other girls.

  
“We need to start pregaming!” Cheryl demands, clapping her hands loudly at the rest of the team. “Did anyone bring it?”

  
“I’m providing today” Sheila announces. “My dear date Sayid may have slipped me this bottle of Vodka..”

  
“Oh my god, _score_!”

  
They pop the bottle open and Veronica is laughing by the time everyone has taken their turn, some leaning against lockers and loosing their footing. She reaches for her phone in her bag and chooses the first song from an unorganised playlist, _Unholy_ by _Hey Violet._ She and Betty both stand up and immediately start dancing to the opening together.

 

“Oh my god, I love this song!” The blonde exclaims, moving her body wildly to the beat.

Cheryl is hysterical watching them, and Josie passes around the bottle again to everyone, and soon the room erupts in the singing voices and giggles of girls. They all share another bottle when the first goes empty and dance around so much that they feel dizzy. With one hand holding the bottle, Veronica spins across the floor, skirt fanning out as her hair flies and the entire world moves sideways.

 

  
_don’t say it’s unholy, if I let you come hold me_

 

  
The sultry soundtrack is making Veronica’s blood boil in her veins, the alcohol flowing as her head spins.

 

  
_I know it’s wrong that I want to be here in your arms but tonight I’m so lonely._

 

  
She grabs Betty’s hands and they dance together, hips jutting to the beat, and she has to admit they look kind of ridiculous in their muddy skirts and stray hairs falling out of their ponytails, but right now it feels so light and happy.

 

  
_And I wish that I could, but I can’t make the fantasies stop._

 

  
There’s a dark glint in the other girl’s green eyes that she’s sure reflects in her own, they stand out in low light surrounding them. She’s spent so much time wallowing all alone these past months, she’s almost forgotten how fun girlish friendships are. She knows about the bitchiness and gossiping that usually inherent in it, and she’s been part of it more often than she’d comfortably admit, but there’s also so much laughter and love and support where she is.

  
“The dance is going to be perfect” she comments as Betty throws her head back to take another swig.

  
“As perfect as right now?” Betty wonders, shooting her a smirk and a cocked eyebrow.

  
“Probably better” Veronica laughs, her legs pressing against Betty’s as she falls on the bench next to her. “You know, we make quite the pair Cooper. Perfect girl next door and the shallow rich bitch?”

  
Betty laughs hard, but her voice sobers up as she attempts to sit up straight. “I hate that word”

  
“Wanna try something?” Veronica giggles.

  
Betty barely takes a second to react. Her inhibitons are released and she shrugs. “Don’t ask me”

  
She reaches for her face as she leans down for a kiss, their lips pressing together suddenly and tightly, skin fading into skin as her fingers caress her cheek and pulls her closer, their lips practically fading into one. Betty can feel every inch of her shoulders down to where their kneecaps are pressed together, the taste of alcohol like sweetener that keeps spilling on their tongues. They taste like tempation, their hearts racing, and there isn’t a moment of doubt wether they both like it, they don’t hide it. Veronica deepens the kiss, angling her head to the side before they break apart with heavy chests.

  
They’re acutely aware of the whoops and chatter of awe from their friends, and for a moment Veronica wonders how Betty will react. She wipes their mixed lip gloss off her lips and grins, the blonde letting out an ecstatic laughter. This night is already feeling a lot better.

 

 

 

 

 

x:x

 

 

 

 

 

Archie is laying despondently on his bed, the strong blows of wind makes him swear he can see particles in the air. He’s deciding that it’s stupid of him to be staring up at a ceiling for as long as he has been, even though he’s starting to realise that it’s kind of become a pre - show ritual anytime he performs. It’s like he needs to get in the zone of his own head space before singing out to everyone else.

  
Still though, he’s done doing nothing and Chuck is still in the shower so Archie reaches for his phone on the nightstand and calls his dad. Archie’s glad his dad and him still have a good relationship, that isn’t the case with a lot of his friends, especially in their teenage years. Even though things have been a little strained between them since the accident Archie still knows he can always count on his dad.

  
“Hey son!” Fred sounds bright on the other end, which immediately makes Archie perk up. He almost sounds like he’s been up and about, which is amazing.

  
“Hey, dad” Archie sits up, his smile wide enough that he knows his father can probably hear it in his voice. “How are you? I uh, just wanted to call and check in. We have the homecoming dance tonight.”

  
“Oh! Well good luck on your song, I know you’ll do great. And isn’t it almost seven there? You’re gonna be late”

  
He chuckles, just as the creaky bathroom door opens and Chuck appears wearing a fluffy white towel, low on his hips. Archie gestures to the phone telling him it’s his dad. “Don’t worry dad, after the performance no one will probably notice anyway”

  
Fred spots the points of uncertainty in his son’s voice that he’s always known, and it upsets him. “Come on Arch, you’ve got plenty of friends”

  
“True, but they’re all paired with their dates tonight and I was.. _too caught up_ to actually ask someone, can you believe that?”

  
“Is there someone special you wanted to ask?”

  
The first response he has is no, there’s never been anyone special like _that_ before. Someone that Archie imagines he can talk to, not just physical stuff like the other guys claim is the most important part of a relationship, while he obviously wants that too- he just thinks that if he were to meet someone that he instantly connected with then it would be special. And the longer he thinks about it, Archie can’t rid himself of the image of that girl last night, her angelic face and the way her eyes lit up when she laughed. She looked beautiful in a way that he can’t describe even in a million words, none of them doing her justice, and especially when she looked deeper at him. Looked at him like she knew him, even though they don’t.

 

Archie glances up to his friend in front of their shared mirror drying out his hair with a towel and he remembers that Chuck has asked Veronica to the dance tonight. _Veronica_. He doesn’t know her, but he’ll be looking for her face in the crowd tonight.

  
“That.. is a complicated question” he sighs.

  
“Want to tell me about it?”

  
“Maybe later” he agrees, feeling for the first time a pang of loss at the moment when he should have asked someone else to the dance and now his friend is going with someone that he wouldn’t mind getting to know a whole lot more. “I’m going to get ready, but I love you dad”

  
“Love you too Arch.”

 

 

 

 

 

x:x

 

 

 

 

  
The girls’ dormitory is practically buzzing by the time night falls. There’s usually nothing happening on a Friday night in boarding school, but this time it’s the first dance of the new semester, with Foxcroft, and music and festivities enough to make it special. Veronica takes extra care when she’s getting ready, being poignant with her makeup and spending extra time curling her glossy raven hair just right to get that effortlessly perfect look. She decides to slip into one of her prettier underwear and brassiere sets, considering the likelihood of her doing something tonight- and as she’s already half wasted Veronica feels bold.

  
Sheila is trying to force the side zipper on her dress and Veronica helps her, sliding it up into place with ease. “Thanks” she grins, looking satisfied with her appearance.

  
“No problem” she takes a peek out into their room and catches glimpse of the mayhem that’s different coloured dressed purged out of their closets, curling irons and straighteners and various bottles of hair product laying on their beds. There’s discarded jewellery pieces and shoes piled by the nightstand, although that was mostly Sheila. Someone from the rooms down the hall is playing music loud enough that they can hear it, and Veronica smiles. “Hey, do you have another bottle of that Vodka? Or anything else?”

  
“B’s boy toy is known to have a stock somewhere. No one knows how he does it but you can ask him.”

  
“Thanks” Veronica grins a little mischievously. Sheila helps her into the black silk dress she bought a few months back, it’s not nearly as flashy as the other girls’ as she hadn’t bought anything in mind for a dance, but it’s a good mix of flirtatious and gorgeous and she feels proud of how her body looks in it.

 

She steps out into the bedroom to get her mother’s jade necklace and bracelet set, clasping it onto her dainty wrist and neck carefully.

  
“Veronica, you look beautiful!” Betty enthuses as she’s still running around in her fluffy pink robe and half a face of makeup on. You can see the pink tones in her eyes and Veronica giggles to herself because she’s still buzzed.

  
“You think so?” She asks playfully. The two of them laugh, and then Betty reaches up and curls a piece of Veronica’s her around her finger, saying teasingly, “He’s going to go crazy when he sees you.”

  
One of the other girls next door comes in through their open door, holding up two types of stilettos, and stops in her tracks. “Who’s going to go crazy? Are you gonna hook up with someone Veronica?”

  
“No she isn’t Ginger” Betty says quickly in defence. “Well she could if she wants to, but she’s not trying to”

  
“Chuck Clayton has been hitting on her like since the first day back” Sheila tells the Ginger girl. “She’s not been so sure, but I mean he is pretty hard to resist..”

  
Veronica covers her face in embarrassment, but laughing at the same time. She bids farewell to the other girls so they can continue getting ready, since she has one last thing to do before the dance hits off.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The possibilities of tonight are dancing in her head as she makes her entrance into UCA’s auditorium, turned into a flashy while still appropriate setting for a homecoming hurrah. _Welcome Back, Class of 2019!_ is sprawled in big balloon letters on a banner as people walk in, and there’s white and gold balloons and glittery signs all around. She spots the long food tables, there’s already people dancing, none of them she recognises except for Reggie.

  
“Brought it?” She walks up to him expectantly.

  
Reggie whistles appreciatively. “Good evening to you too, Miss Lodge. You look positively stunning if I’m allowed to say that”

  
Veronica rolls her eyes, couldn’t care less about Reggie really, another one of the boys who the other girls chase after while being too intimidated to talk to him, but he’s an easy going guy and it’s always nice to get a bit of validation that she’s looking good.

  
“Hi. Did you?”

  
“All yours, new girl” he replies with a cool sigh, producing the flask she’d texted him to give her about thirty minutes ago. “Just don’t drink and drive, okay?”

  
She gives him an unamused look for the joke, and a brand new bill into his palm for the poison. “Nice doing business with you”

 

 

 

 

 

 

  
The music draws her in, and she starts swaying softly to the song while making her way across the floor to the food tables. Seeing that there’s a waiter there that usually handles their daily meals, Veronica’s eyes dart around her perimeter but she can’t find any of her friends. She’s looking for Chuck too, but instead a flash of unmissable red hair catches her eye walking through the front doors and just like that Veronica can’t stop her smile.

  
It’s almost like a movie in slow motion, how she focuses on his expression and his legs moving across the floor looking a little impressionable and a lot handsome. She probably doesn’t realise how long she stands there smiling at him, but in that period of time she feels significantly sober already.

  
A moment later she catches his eye too, and after he’s talked to some people Archie makes his way to the girl in the pretty black dress who’s still watching him intently.

  
“Are you having fun?” He asks her, and when he smiles, all twinkling eyes and pearly white teeth, he’s the most attractive boy in the world and Veronica thinks she could look at that smile forever. Her belly flutters as his brown eyes scan her from the top of her long glittery earrings to the tip of her satin black Manolos and then move slowly back up. He’s not smiling when his eyes meet hers again, but it’s not hard to read the look on his face and she looks towards the floor so he won’t see the blush heating up her cheeks.

  
Veronica bites on her lower lip in a second of nervousness, and then, in the break of the music she raises her voice and says to him “This party could use a little spice. Do you wanna help me with something?”

  
Archie’s lips twitch in suspicion and intrigue. “Am I going to regret it?”

  
“Probably” she shrugs, cocking her head innocently to the side.

  
The way her eyes widen animatedly has him laughing, and he allows her to take his hand in hers. He has literally no idea where this girl is leading him or what she’s even up to, but somehow he doesn’t care, and this kind of frivolous excitement that’s brewing under his skin is making him skittish in anticipation. Her skin feels so soft and warm, and he finds himself thinking that she probably smells nice too, if the waft of her Chanel No. 5 is any indication.

  
“Distract the waiter for me, will you?” Veronica whispers in a gravelly tone, her dark eyes dancing with mischief. Archie is amused and a little surprised but he doesn’t need to think about it. It’s crazy how fast he can feel comfortable around her.

  
Archie uses his time with trivial questions disguised in small conversation with the young waiter while Veronica pours a hefty amount of Shardana into the three big punch bowls. He can see her being sneaky out of the corner of his eye and the smile tugging on his lips is almost unbearable.

  
“That’s great! Oh- and can we get two cups of punch please?” Archie winks over his shoulder at her while the waiter gets their drinks.

  
“Cheers!” Veronica half laughs, clinking their plastic cups together. They take a taste of it and the sugary syrup tastes better than ever. She remembers how Betty had told her about Archie performing tonight, and she hasn’t forgotten the soft melody haunting her thoughts since the night they met either. “So I’m hoping your song is finished?”

  
“It is. But I’m gonna need all the luck I can get” he sighs.

  
“Well.. my psychic powers foresee great things for you Archie Andrews, don’t hold back” She smiles into her cup while taking another gulp, noticing the way his broad shoulders shake when he laughs, he laughs with his whole face and body.

  
Archie is about to say something in response when someone places a hand on her shoulder from behind, and that last second is gone as she twirls around and looks surprised. “Chuck, you’re here. Look at you all dressed up”

  
“Of course I came. Couldn’t miss the opportunity to spend a night with you” Chuck winks, looking at her appreciatively.

  
She doesn’t notice Archie is gone until she turns and sees him walking away.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“Are you all ready, Arch?” Betty is fussing while the stage manager helps get Archie’s mic fixed, she hasn’t stopped asking him and running around back stage all hyper like since fifteen minutes ago.

  
“Yes, Betty I’m still ready. You know, from the last time you asked?”

  
She lets a long breath go and puts one hand on his shoulder, comfortingly. Betty looks extra pretty tonight in her fine diamonds and with her golden hair curled, it’s a different look for her. Archie is glad because she was worrying she wouldn’t stand out in the plain dress Mrs Cooper had chosen, but Archie told her that’s nonsense.

  
“Good. Because I think the audience fell asleep during Covington’s speech.” She whispers irritably.

  
Archie chuckles, trying to shake the nerves off himself somehow. “Who knows, they might sleep when I’m singing too.”

  
“Shut up! She just announced you, go!” Betty is being her usual self and takes control of the situation, organising the few performers backstage and making sure everything is in perfect order the way she wants it. She gives Archie a harder than necessary shove on the shoulder so he actually starts walking.

  
On the stage, Archie’s just thankful that the spotlights are bright enough, so much so that for a moment he can’t even see the faces in the audience. He prefers it like that. Stage fright is still something he’s battling with, even though he can sing in his room and in front of his friends and family with all his heart and soul- on stage it’s just a different story.

  
The pressure of being the opening act and opening a good window of following performances takes its toll too, and Archie busies himself with adjusting his guitar for as many moments as possible. He doesn’t dare to look in the crowd, not yet, not until the first chorus comes so maybe by then everyone will have gotten used to the song.

  
His fingers are still shaking like it’s a blizzard in the room, and he’s extremely conscious of the expressions on his face as he starts strumming the first notes, singing the self written lyrics and hoping they don’t become too personal.

 

“ _I remember when you were all mine. Watched you changing in front of my eyes. What can I say?_ ”

  
He’s still amazed by the way his voice travels in the mic and amplifies all around them, and how every soft drum on his guitar is adding up into one perfect melody. Archie keeps his eyes closed for however long it takes to feel comfortable.

  
“ _Now that I’m not the fire in the cold, now that I’m not the hand that you hold as you’re walking away_ ”

  
Out there in the crowd everyone is a little elusive, maybe the alcohol or maybe his song, and couples sway back and forth slowly together dreamily. Veronica is standing with the rest of her new friends and she can safely say that it’s a proud feeling in her chest that’s erupting, because _she_ knows this song and because she feels like somehow the words are a special little thing only the two of them knew of until now.

  
Reggie has dragged Chuck and their cronies off somewhere to mess around since his date Betty is busy backstage, and Veronica doesn’t admit to herself that she feels relieved for getting to spend this moment of hearing him on her own.

  
“ _Will you call me to tell me you’re alright? Cause I worry about you the whole night_ ”

  
He finally opens his eyes and suddenly he’s brought back to that night, the water fountain and the blanket of glittering stars. Back then, when it was only her listening, and right now he feels exactly the same. Archie can just see how from now on, it might always be like this; him always looking for her face in the crowd to quiet all the noise.

  
“ _Don’t repeat my mistakes, I won’t sleep ‘till you’re safe inside_ ”

  
She isn’t smiling on her lips, but anyone who’s seen the expression on her face the last minute would know it’s even more special than any smile in the world. Almost like she’s soaking in every word and every pause he takes, all the stops and starts that display his emotion in the song.

  
“ _Don’t leave me this way, I won’t sleep ‘till your safe inside_ ”

 

The concept of being safe, something that, after all she’s been through this past year and the pains of growing up making her reflect and realise that she’s never really _had_ a safe place. The past still staining her heart and mind like spilled red whine on a white cloth table runner. But there’s nothing she can do now that the fireworks have burst into ashes, and the thought of having someplace safe is a wistful thought she can only ever dream of, but she likes it.

  
Archie bows when he’s finished with his song, and Veronica can’t deny that something inside her has already changed forever because of him.

 

 

 

 

 

x:x

 

 

 

 

 

After the last performance wraps up, is when the party truly begins. Principal Covington has stepped out to give them healthy privacy, also inadvertently allowing them to let loose and be their best wild teenager selves. Dilton Doiley is on DJ, and he turns up the first of many upbeat dance tracks that the dark collision of bodies start moving and jiving to. Veronica is living her best life as she dances around her group of new friends, she’s spent so much time being careful and right now all she can think is _what the hell, I can’t stop having so much fun._

  
So at some point she’s pulled Chuck from the other guys to join her, their hands connecting first and then their lips lingering softly. _You’re so much more fun when you’re drunk!_ Someone shouts, and out of the corner of her eye she sees Betty leading Reggie into a kiss too, her hands on his jaw and his in her hair. Sheila and Toni are doing some crazy dance moves together and Moose seems even more drunk than all the rest of them, eyes half closed as he sings out every word to the song.

  
“Here’s to friendship forever, even the fucked up times!” Betty toasts, her cup raised high and bumping with everyone else’s before they drink again.

So when all of Foxcroft and UCA’s main party animals are in one spot on the dance floor, you know some things are about to go wrong. Reggie actually has joints that he brings out somewhere in the haze, which of course none of them are opposed to and don’t hesitate. She can see Archie dancing adorably behind her, oblivious to her eyes, and he looks so lost in his own happy little world that Veronica doesn’t resist the wide grin on her lips. While she’s watching him though, her hands are resting on Chuck’s shoulders as they move but he’s such an incredible dancer that any swerve he takes just makes her gleeful and excited altogether.

  
So when she finally gets the chance to be away from the boys she bumps into Betty, who’s coming back with another cup of punch that almost spills all over the front of their pristine dresses had they both not jumped back instinctively.

  
“Oh, whoops!” The blonde laughs, completely unapologetic, her shaky fingers almost causing the drink to spill again.

  
“You’re so wasted!” Veronica shouts, tears barely appearing at the ducts of her eyes because she’s smiling so wide, and she uses her hand to steady Betty’s on the cup.

  
They hold onto it together and are half dancing, half jumping, every so often taking another sip of the alcohol.

 

Archie is imitating one of the viral videos he’d seen over the summer , making his friends laugh hysterically, when one Ethel Muggs with a red bow in her hair and pursed lips marches up to him and taps his shoulder insistently.

  
“Archie? Can you help me with something?” She asks him coyly.

  
Archie turns around, a little surprised since Ethel almost never actually speaks to him- or any of his friends for that matter. “Oh hey Ethel, uh what’s up?”

  
“I was helping get more cups in the storage closet but they’re on the top shelve, do you think you could get them for me?”

  
“Oh, uh sure” he nods.

  
“It’s the biggest box on the left. You should probably ask Chuck to help you too” she informs him.

  
“Sure”

  
He’s a little wasted when he walks down the hall with Chuck, quiet in comparison to the noisy auditorium, but they feel a little better taking some time away.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“Kev, please...” Moose is trying to be the wise one in the relationship so he gathers all his strength to push him off, albeit reluctantly, only when he did Kevin tightened his hold on him pulling them back together.

  
“Please what, Moose? Stop?” He whispers in his ear and starts nibbling on his earlobe. Even if his mind is telling him no, his body is screaming yes, so he braces his hands on Moose’s biceps to stabilise himself. “See Moose, _I_ don’t want to stop and it’s only the second base.” He adds and now squeezes his member, starting to pumping his hand up and down slowly. He forgets everything at the moment, except how good it feels, and the way the building is thumping around them with how loud the music is.

  
All Moose’s qualms are vanished as Kevin’s lips mould into his own, and he tangles his hands in the short hair on the nape of his neck pleasingly.

  
“That’s... amazing” he whispers as his hand eases up to his torso in soft caresses.

  
He’s about to go in for a kiss again when the knob on the door turns and before they can react it flies wide open, the buzzed and then shocked faces of Moose’s friends like two deers in the headlights- even though they’re actually looking at it.

  
“Moose?” Chuck can’t believe it, but the tone of his voice is so loud and questioning that it makes everyone stand on edge already. “What are you doing here?”

  
“Chuck-“ he stutters uselessly, trying to hide himself.

  
“You told me you were going to check up on Midge what- what the hell is this dude?”

  
He takes a step into the closet just as Archie clenches his eyes shut, dreading what is inevitably to come. Of course it gets worse. Chuck has his hand on Moose’s chest to shove lightly when Kevin pushes it away in a burst of anger.

  
“Hey watch yourself!”

  
“I’m talking to my friend” he tells Kevin warningly.

  
“He’s my friend too” The green  eyed boy spits back, angry and frustrated at always being put in this position. “In fact, he actually wants to be here with me.”

  
Archie puts his hands on Chuck’s shoulders to hold him back, because the look of fiery on his face just isn’t settling in the slightest, drunk and even more brazen than usual.

  
“So you’re screwing around with this idiot while your girlfriend is falling into the arms of some other nobody?” Chuck asks, even louder this time, taunting.

  
“Chuck will you leave him the hell alone?!” Archie finally snaps. He uses his grip on Chuck’s shoulder to turn him around facing him. “Why do you give a damn if he’s happy?”

  
“So you knew about this then?” Chuck scoffs in realisation.

  
“Wait- Archie did you fucking tell him to come here?” Moose backs away in disbelief.

  
“ _What_? No! I- shit... fucking Ethel” he curses. He should’ve known that girl wasn’t up to talking to him for no reason, especially the way she’s enjoyed making drama recently.

  
Kevin looks increasingly nervous and more than that angry, his face fuming when Moose throws his hands up and punches Chuck hard on his chest. “You know what fuck you” he spits, turning to Kevin and shoving him too. “Fuck _you_ and fuck you too!” He steps away from all three of them screaming before disappearing down the hall “You hear me fuck all of you!”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Veronica can feel herself slipping under the colourful laser lights, one round of truth or dare doing some stupid immature dares and the entire day’s alcohol has gotten to her head. On the outside she looks cool, and she’s bumping softly to the music still, but the school auditorium feels like it’s turned into a rave or some trap of people dancing until they lose their minds- completely lost of the time and the world outside. Just another taste of the lime in her drink and she can feel herself keeling, stomach clenching at nothing to try and stop herself.

  
Looking around none of her other peers are in close range, the guys have been missing for a while and Cheryl, Betty and the other girls are still completely immersed in the game. She squeezes the skin of her lower belly with her palm and starts heading for the nearest bathroom, not even sure what she’s doing until her head hits something cold and all the contents in her stomach are spilling over.

  
She can’t see anything with the curtain of her dark hair hiding her eyes, but from what she can feel- this reminds her of many other instances except right now, she’s only taken back to one specific night.

 

 

  
_At the top of the stairwell a bodyguard let’s her in, and she searches the private club until her eyes land on him. They’ve been having fun and flirting all night long and she finally feels herself flying when he reaches for her hand and opens the door to their room._

_  
“Come in” he mutters, almost as high as she is, falling back on the bed with a groan. “I think someone mixed the tequila with those jelly shots.”_

_  
“You look like hell” she moves slowly and tantalisingly to the edge of the bed. “What did you do while I was gone?”_

_  
“Lost a game of pool to Elio” he mutters “Took some shots”_

_  
“A few too many I think” Veronica says lightly, and they both laugh but he isn’t looking too lighthearted with the way his eyes trace every curve of her body in the tight dress hugging it. “I missed you when I was at cheer camp” she admits. “I’m glad you threw this party for us”_

_  
“Me too” he pulls her closer, laughing when her breath shakes with nervousness and arousal all in one, and he leans over her with a mischievous grin. “And I definitely missed you”_

_  
She focuses on nothing but the growing feeling of pleasure between her legs until she’s naked and they’re both finally doing what they’ve wanted to. She gasps and whimpers, it isn’t her first time but this feels a lot different with someone who has experience, her thighs quivering as she wraps them around him. When he comes he’s still deep inside her, and even though she feels the pulse as he lets himself go neither of them remember anything about protection- or the fact that she’d left her birth control at home during the cheer camp weekend._

_She knows before she takes the test. When a wave of nausea hits her upset stomach every morning the past week and her period doesn’t come with it Veronica becomes aware of a growing feeling of difference deep inside her. Subtle, indistinct, but unmistakable all the same. The taste of metal in her mouth, an unusual weariness and heaviness to her breasts that feel warmer and more sensitive.. she knows what it points to._

_  
She buys a test from a drugstore all the way in Rochester in fear of anyone she knows recognising her. She goes home and locks herself in the bathroom and pees on the little wand, sitting with her knees to her chest on the cold tile for the longest two minutes of her life._

_  
She bought a digital test and the word practically glows back at her._

_  
**Pregnant** _

_  
Her first thought is of everything she’ll lose. She’ll have to give up cheerleading, and stop hanging out with friends and let any dream of taking over the family business after college go. Let go of all her plans for the rest of her life. Her parents- her heart is pounding as the terror rises up._

 

 

She raises her head from the toilet bowl and it takes a whole minute to get back on her feet, breathing heavily as she stares in the mirror until she can’t see through the hot tears welling up in her eyes. Still thinking hard about the memory, her hands curl around her now flat stomach and she doesn’t allow herself to let the tears fall.

  
_This isn’t the same, get out of your head._

 

 

 

 

 

 

  
x:x

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Betty is looking around for her friends; all Archie, Chuck, Kevin, Moose and Veronica seem to be missing and she can’t for the life of her think what they might be doing. But she spots Reggie with some other guys on the team, and she doesn’t worry too much about the others. The two of them move well together on the dance floor and he has a biting sense of goofy humour that always makes her laugh, so she enjoys his company and it’s easy to lose track of time when they’re lost in each other.

 

Eventually Reggie kisses her, his tongue discovering the familiar depths of her mouth but Betty only feels slightly repulsed by the way something reeks off of him. “I think you’ve had way too much to drink” she tells him plainly.

  
“What’re you talking about hmm?” He pulls back and stares at her belligerently. “We should get out of here.. I know you can’t stop thinking about last night, or should we do it here? Would you like that?”

  
Betty shakes her head, cutting some distance between them. “No.”

  
Reggie has had something way stronger than any of them and is staring at her with pleading eyes. “Come on Betty”

  
“Reggie, you need to sober up” she says, trying to sound calm. “I know how you can get when you’re drunk and high at the same time.”

  
“Did you just come over here to bitch at me?” He sighs irritably. “Because that’s all I’m getting here!”

  
“I didn’t. I came over to hang out with you but you’re obviously too hammered to even think straight” she pushes his hands from her waist and starts to walk away.

  
Reggie doesn’t falter though, he takes another step and wraps his arm around her from behind. “I’m sorry baby.. do you wanna go somewhere else just the two of us?”

  
Suddenly annoyed as ever with him, Betty yanks his arm free. “I’m going to find Veronica” she snaps. “Because I would be having a really good time if you’d stop fucking drinking and just chill out.”

  
“Stop being such a bitch, will you? You know I’d never go crazy like my old man when I’m fucking drunk or something” Reggie says in an injured tone.

  
Betty really looks at him like he’s ridiculous now, shaking her head. “If you want to _talk_ about something just talk to me. But don’t disguise your pain and cover it up by getting drunk off your face.”

  
“B..” Reggie takes hold of her hand again. “You’re really overreacting here.”

  
She pulls against his tight grip. “I’m just trying to help.”

  
“Oh. I thought it was because you can’t stand someone not listening to you and having your way for once in your life.” Reggie’s voice is dangerously low.

  
“Why are you being such a jerk?” Betty can’t move Reggie’s hand, and in frustration she digs her fingernails into him. “Let me go!”

 

  
She pushes him away hard and runs, hearing the music fade ferociously fast as she escapes the entire scene. She’s careless in her hurry, trying desperately not to cry and she slips on the steps outside the building, landing hard in a sitting position and she can feel her tailbone burning.

  
“Betty!”

  
She nearly shouts but it’s just Jughead, running to her side. He gets on his knees next to her and she lets her head fall sideway into his chest, the heavy drops of tears giving way.

  
“What are you doing out here?” She asks stupidly.

  
Jughead glances at the school building where the auditorium is. “Betty you know I hate parties. What happened?”

  
“I got in a fight with Reggie” she mumbles on salty tear stained lips, surprised when Jughead sits properly beside her and curves his hand on her head that’s still resting on his chest. She can’t help feeling guilty for not taking a softer approach, she knows how sensitive Reggie can be and maybe she was too straightforward.

  
“Betty..” Jughead holds her hand that Reggie had tugged on earlier softly, and she glances up at his face, which clearly shows worry. He sees her looking at him. “Look Betty I don’t know what happened, and it’s none of my business but if you need anything you can tell me.” He says fast.

  
With a heavy heart she feels any words die on her lips, and she lays her head against the cool material of his suit’s shoulder and closes her eyes. She sobs painfully, feeling pain like a physical thing even though he really doesn’t mean anything more to her than a casual friend with benefits.

  
“I’m just so goddamn _stupid_.” _For getting involved with someone with so much emotional baggage, and trying to play hero like it would even change anything. Why does she bother?_

  
Jughead freezes at her words. “Of course not. Look Betty.. maybe you could just sit here with me for a while, okay?”

  
She nods in silent agreement, the races in her heart slowing down as their hands tangle together and she tries to even out her breathing and lets the cool air dry her miserable tears away. “That’s all I want right now.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

x:x

 

 

 

 

 

  
Veronica finally comes back into the auditorium and the first person she locks eyes with is her date. She can’t see too well with her vision getting blurry, and the dimly lit atmosphere. But she can make out that he’s sitting on one of the lounge chairs with his lips pressed in an unpleasant line.

  
Veronica stops by the food table to get another drink, needing to forget everything. A vicious cycle she started a long time ago and can’t stop. She turns around and sees that Chuck is still looking at her, he gestures for her to come over to him. She shakes her head and gives him the ‘come hither’ finger, and to her surprise he actually got up and came.

  
“Hey” he has a lighter expression on his face after seeing her.

  
“We haven’t spent much time with each other tonight” Veronica realises that he’d been missing for a while before she left.

  
“It’s a shame. I did tell you I want to hang out with you, you’re gorgeous”

  
“What a charmer. So tell me more about yourself, I don’t really know you”

  
Chuck gets himself a drink and they lean against the table together. “Well, I’ve been wanting to play lacrosse since I was four. It was like my only dream. But my dad always tried to put me into football teams all through elementary school.”

  
“Why is that?” She finds it an odd fact to tell someone, especially because she doesn’t even know anything about lacrosse or has any real interest in football other than cheerleading.

  
“Well my dad coaches the Seattle Seahawks.” Chuck shrugs. “He manages the team, and my godfather is his consultant. Their whole lives are football.”

  
“I’m not too into sports. Besides cheerleading, and I guess now field hockey. Maybe you can take me to see a game one day.”

  
Chuck nods blissfully at her, the previous tension on his mind disappearing when he sees her face. Now Veronica has a better chance to look at him up close. He has big hazel eyes, this fantastic brown hair and an incredibly charming way of smiling. “My dad still tries to talk me into taking after him, though. I mean maybe I should. I’d get a twenty million dollar pay check every year.”

  
Veronica blinked, uncaringly. “Is you casually throwing out your father’s net worth supposed to impress me? Are you expecting me to throw my panties at you now or something?”

  
Chuck perks up a bit. “Are you going to?”

  
“Hah. _Well_ even if I do it wouldn’t be for that reason. You know why?”

 

She pauses for a moment while Chuck gives her a humorous look in response.

  
“I’m Veronica Lodge. My grandfather started Lodge Industries almost a hundred years ago, with sacrifice and using a streetlight to do his homework. Now the business has grown into multi billion dollar company which I’m an heiress to, after my father’s retirement. So.. if you ever end up owning the Seattle Seahawks ten years from now, just keep in mind that I can buy you. I could buy the entire team.” Veronica can see the smirk leave Chuck’s face. “A lot of primely rich people don’t realise that they don’t own anything. Actors and singers are owned by their production companies, and athletes are the puppets to the team owner. Having a lot of investments like my dad, though? That’s the kind of real power only a small percentage of the entire country has.”

 

Chuck gathers his wits off the floor and is still in awe at her, he shrugs cheekily. “Well then maybe you need a little taste outside of that small circle”

  
“Hmm.. and I’m guessing you want to be the one to give it to me?”

  
Chuck mulls over the statement. He nods. “True. Care to continue this conversation somewhere else?”

  
She shoots him another flirtatious grin, shaking her head slightly at his unrelenting forwardness, and thirty minutes later they find themselves pressing into each other, his back slammed into the front door of his dorm room as their lips lock in a heated rush. Her fingers fumbling with clothes as he scrambles to open the door for them.

  
No words are spoken but a few kittenish whimpers from her throat and a few deep groans slurred between them. Her fingers are dancing along the jagged line of his abdomen, feeling the muscles there bunch up and twist. His hands find their way into her hair, pulling at the thick strands of black, tilting her head back and exposing her neck for him to assault.

  
“Are you sure about this?” He asks, lips smooth against her burning hot skin.

  
“Yes, are you?”

  
“Mhm” Chuck lets out a strangled groan of approval when she reaches for the waistline of his pants.

  
“Good. Now shut up and fuck me” she commands.

  
At that he lifts her up from the bottom of her thighs, the feeling of her wrapping those silken legs around him driving straight to his groin, and he tosses her down gingerly onto his bed.

 

 

 

 

 

x:x

 

 

 

 

 

Archie supposes the party has already died down, at least to the point that he doesn’t hear music anymore and all his friends seem to have taken off. He’s dragging his expensive shoes on the carpeted floor to his dorm room, still bitter and upset at how wrong the entire night went with Moose and now Chuck has found out.

  
He wouldn’t have bothered too much, except for the fact that he just had to spend the last hour talking to a morose and sorrow Moose trying to tell him all the things he should hear.

  
He has both hands in his pockets and takes one out to twist the knob on his and Chuck’s door, when the door actually opens itself and the last person Archie expects is standing there behind it.

  
“Archie?” Veronica looks astonished. “What are you..”

  
“What are you doing here?” Archie asks quickly.

  
Behind Veronica though Archie can see Chuck laying in his messy bed with seemingly nothing on, and he just about dies of mortification. Archie pushes the door open wider and gestures for her to walk ahead, stepping aside with an awkward  smile.

  
“Well.. I might just go back to my dorm now” Veronica mumbles, sliding past him in the doorway.

 

She takes off before she can hear him respond, and it’s practically pitch black out and freezing when she walks from Foxcroft to UCA at this hour of the morning. She doesn’t know how she gets back, because the whole walk is a blur, but she’s aware of how strangely quiet everything has gotten almost like everyone is asleep and the party never even happened. Veronica feels a little winded down, and even a bit giddy after doing what she and Chuck just did, sighing when she remembers how awkward it turned out- but she doesn’t let it bother her too much, hoping to god that Archie isn’t going to be avoiding her or thinking differently of her from now on. Just when she thinks the awkward situation cannot possibly get worse, and she’s finally reached 3B with a relieved little sigh and smile, there’s a thudding noise of footsteps behind her and someone clears their throat.

  
“Miss Lodge, would you care to explain what you’re doing out of bed so late?”

  
She can’t turn around but she doesn’t recognise the voice either, only when it registers in her half functioning brain that she’s been totally butchered. _Fuck, Monroe is back from her holiday._

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> did you guys survive until the end? LOL. There’s a lot that happened this chapter so I want to hear all your thoughts. Leave a review and reach out to me on tumblr @ff16xo if you want to talk more!
> 
> p/s the nickname kevin has for betty at the beginning is courtesy of miss viktoria and her magic that is the fic lake michigan. 💖


	4. chapter four

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hey everyone! sorry this chapter was later than usual, I’ve been swamped with homework and tests (and still am, lol) but I really missed writing and I wanted to update this. 
> 
> I’m floored by the support of this fic, as always, it means so so so much to me! This chapter is dedicated to my babes, yani (who’s helped me put together this fic, love you girl) tori, tiff, milly, gabbie, katie, emily, ak and also anonymous06 for all the wonderful comments and feedback. I love you guys :)

 

 

 

_go ahead and cry little girl_

_nobody does it like you do, I know how much it matters to you_

_I know that you got daddy issues_

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  
There’s the sound of an alarm blaring and Veronica isn’t sure wether it’s just in her head, but she reaches up to cover her ears and puts pressure on her temples to rid some of the throbbing pain. She doesn’t open her eyes at first, but when she does, it’s almost like she can’t see _anything_ because of how dark it is in their room and how badly her head hurts. Some time later though, when she’s completely convinced the ringing is just in her head- someone hits their lights on and flashes of blonde and brown hair are moving around getting hurriedly into their robes. She still doesn’t register what the hell is happening- but then sees Sheila’s face wavering above and a hand shaking her shoulder vigorously.

  
“Wake up, Veronica. It’s a fire drill”

 

  
The doors to their dorms are wide open and someone is calling names, Veronica can feel herself tripping on her feet as she struggles to get up and slip into some comfortable shoes and a night robe. But Sheila is helping her, and for the first time as they’re following the mass of girls outside and the fire alarm is taking over her hearing Veronica really doesn’t care what she looks like. It’s hard to make out any faces in this crowd, but she catches sight of Betty and Toni in the midst of all the chaos and she has to admit they look as bad as she probably does right now.

  
Four or more of the teachers are shouting at everyone to get out and line up in the school compound, and Veronica’s heart is thudding with anticipation but she’s also so tired that a part of her almost wipes out and faints.

  
“Veronica!” She feels somebody hold their hand on the small of her back and is relieved when her head almost comes in collision with Betty’s as she falls, quickly steadying herself with her help. “Hey are you okay? Last time I saw you was at the party and you were talking to Chuck. What happened?”

  
Veronica takes a moment to register everything. The noise coming from all the girls, the damp ground and the way her shoes are sinking into the mud, the burning feeling in the back of her throat as her skin freezes. Then she remembers _that_.

  
“Well let’s just say it was fun” she says cagily, and Betty laughs at her and Veronica laughs a little too, relaxing a little. “But what the _hell_ is going on?”

  
Turning to where Veronica gestures, Betty sighs at the sea of students- the juniors and seniors lethargic and underclassmen anxious. “They do this all the time after a party. I think it’s Covington’s twisted way of punishing us without letting us know that she knows we were drinking. Plus, Monroe’s back.. so she was probably feeling very inspired”

  
Betty uses the elastic band on her wrist and reaches behind to tie her hair up in a ponytail, while Veronica ponders what she hears and slowly remembers in horror about her encounter with the distasteful infamous Monroe.

  
She’s just about to tell Betty about what happened when a girl near them bends over at her knees and throws up without warning, disgusting evidence of the alcohol from last night making itself known. Everyone around her shrieks or makes some noise of disgust to step away, and so do they.

  
“Ugh, fucking hell. Come on” Veronica pulls Betty lightly by the arm a few feet away in the crowd, where Coach Clavell has started calling their attendance.

  
“So what happened?” Betty has to shout, Veronica almost laughs again. It’s practically four in the morning and they’re both feeling delirious.

  
She sighs. “We had sex at his dorm afterwards.” She admits with a bite on her lower lip. “And it was... _amazing_ , but, it’s not going anywhere after that.”

  
“What’s the problem?” Betty says. She pulls her fuzzy pink robe tighter around herself and Veronica can see her jaw shivering a little, pale skin growing red with how cold it is as she pauses. “He obviously has the hots for you, so if you like it you could do it again.”

  
Veronica shrugs. She doesn’t feel like telling anyone about everything and the fact that last night almost feels like a slip up, even though she _wanted_ it, but it’s the first time she’s been intimate with anyone since her pregnancy and she’s still having a hard time processing it. It was dark, Chuck couldn’t see or feel the surgical scar and she hopes she didn’t feel any different, hopes he doesn’t ask any questions. “I just don’t feel like it... but speaking of, I feel like- I should ask you. After that kiss.. You don’t like, _like_ me or anything right?”

  
Betty makes a face. “Of course I like you! But yes.. not like that”

  
They’re made aware of the fact that the boys are also here now, and Betty takes a moment of haste to find Cheryl when she doesn’t say _here!_ to Coach Clavell’s call for _Cheryl Blossom_. But she eventually does and neither of them pay any attention to the boys that have come trudging into the compound not bothering to put an ounce of clothing on other than their shorts and t shirts. They just have their eyes focused on each other.

  
“Good then” Veronica says, face lighting up with a smile. “Because you know, I was really hoping we could be friends”

  
“Definitely. Best friends” Betty agrees cheerfully, intertwining their cold hands together. “ _B_ and _V._ ”

  
Veronica can’t help laughing a little then, nodding because the title does have a good ring to it. And Betty looks so child like and happy with her nose all red even though her green eyes are bloodshot still. “That said, you are an excellent kisser B. No wonder all the boys are hung up on you”

  
Betty’s expression turns serious for a second but she quickly collects herself and adds teasingly “Ooh, well I know _Chuck_ must have liked what he got last night too. You hooked up at his room, by the way? Bold of you”

  
Veronica blushes. Mostly because she’s not sure if she should tell Betty that Archie saw them afterwards- plus she’s still half embarrassed about the whole ordeal, sighing wistfully. “Si, lo de anoche fue una pinche locura”

  
“What?”

  
“It means last night was bat shit crazy.. so how did the rest of yours go?”

  
“Hmm” Betty looks down, frowning. She’s trying to find the right words to describe exactly what entailed. She’d mostly stayed out and talked to Jughead about the things they like to, the constellations and him telling her how pretty she looked before he walked her to her dorm and she didn’t let go of his hand the entire way back. That part, the part when she reached the building only to run back out and crush herself back into him with a long needed hug, a gesture that didn’t even feel enough, was perfect. But the ugliness that led up to it and the miserable realisation that once she turns her phone back on there’ll be a thousand texts and missed calls and voice mails from Reggie she just _doesn’t_ want to deal with isn’t. But in the end, she was the one who started it with him and she knows she’ll eventually have to talk to him again if her mind is telling her no, other parts of her doesn’t. And it’s all so complicated. “How do you say.. I am done with boys”

  
Veronica blinks in amusement and holds back her laughter. “ya me canse de los hombres”

  
“Well... for now, anyway” Betty admits in a soft voice.

  
They burst into a bubble of laughter together, because even though it’s freezing and their heads are spinning both of them are in unison in _that_ statement, and Veronica feels light once again until the sharp sound of Principal Covington’s ruler on the brick wall alerts them and everyone else.

  
“Miss Lodge and Miss Cooper! Pay attention”

 

 

 

 

 

  
x:x

 

 

 

 

 

 

  
Archie, Chuck and Reggie have history together right after lunch on Monday. It’s the first period they all three have together on that day, and Archie is practically bouncing with anticipation to see them. He needs to talk about what happened. But even more than that, he feels drained, and after Professor Dwyer tells them that they’re heading to the library building Archie feels like he’s dragging his feet the entire way there. Reggie has been glued to Chuck’s side all day, Archie’s not sure why, although with the three of them no matter how bad things get they usually patch things up in less than a week at most.

  
They walk into the large library building, bold letters above the entrance reading _F. Andrews Library._

  
Last year, Archie’s dad donated almost six million dollars to debut the new library for both Foxcroft and Upper Columbia Academy’s use. It’s a vast two storey building, standing on it’s own a few feet away from the rest of the school building- first floor strictly dedicated to all the books one could ever dream of reading, desks for people to work at, huge couches and hammocks to sit, and even a fireplace and cafe. The second storey is mostly computers for research and a mini theatre that the teachers sometimes use for presentations.

  
Professor Dwyer sends them off to do research for their own personal topics handed out earlier, and Archie finds himself dropping into one of the lounge chairs with his head leaning back against the edge. Out of the corner of his eye he seems some girls from UCA’s senior class by the literature wing, whispering excitedly amongst themselves and stealing glances before looking back slowly and waving at him. Archie closes his eyes, trying to avoid them without being rude.

 

His silent time does barely last just one second when he hears two pairs of heavy footsteps, and Reggie lands a heavy book on Archie’s chest. “Here. History of developing arts. Both in Spain, and America” he nods, going to take the seat next to him, beside Chuck.

  
Archie mutters his thanks, even though he’s more than a little awed that Reggie actually took the time to hear what topic Archie is doing research for and used some effort to go and find a book on it.

  
“So you did know the rumour about Moose and Keller last year, was true, right?” Chuck asks. He looks a little softer, somewhat apologetic in a way only he could portray. Archie nods slowly, running the red school tie hanging from his shirt collar between two forefingers repeatedly. He’s also thankful that Chuck has decided to be bigger than he usually is and start talking about this.

  
“What?” Chuck asks, his eyes darting between Archie and an unusually quiet Reggie. “Did you know too? You told him and not me?”

  
“Hey” Reggie has one ankle crossed at the other’s knee, both hands coming up in defence. “Moose told me about it because he was really down, okay? And I asked him. We were in an elevator there was nowhere for him to avoid me”

  
Chuck sighs a little then, but decides it isn’t a matter worth fighting over. “Fine then, but Moose shouldn’t keep secrets from us. Aren’t we friends?”

  
“Chuck come on, it’s not like he wanted to he was just scared. And after last night- I can see how he’s worried how you might react” Archie points out.

  
“You think I have anything against Moose liking guys, Andrews? Last night was a complete shock. I _reacted_ because I was still thinking that Moose wanted to get back with Midge- not realising I was the biggest fool there”

 

“Wait- what the hell are you talking about?” Reggie sits up a bit straighter, his forehead creased.

  
There’s a moment of silence, either of them unsure wether or not they should tell Reggie without Moose here. It is his story after all. Archie lays the heavy book on his lap and starts to flip it open, mostly using it as a distraction. “Where were you last night anyway?”

  
Chuck laughs meaningfully in response, “Do you wanna tell him or should I?”

  
“Well- Betty and I have been fighting recently. I mean that’s not always a _bad_ thing either...” his eyes turn to Archie’s sharply. “I hope this isn’t weird... I know she’s like a sister to you”

  
“Uh.. just leave out the details” Archie huffs, slouching lower in his seat. He’s not sure if this has any relevance to the conversation they’re even having but of course, with Reggie, it has to go there.

  
“She was on my case about something completely stupid again, last night, and I’ve tried calling and texting a million times and she hasn’t answered. Maybe she’s... upset or angry after the fight”

  
“Oh” Archie breathes an sigh through his nose, expecting something a little more climactic regardless. “She called me before first period and told me that herself”

  
In his seat Reggie’s jaw drops, which Chuck doesn’t stop himself from laughing at. “So she could pick up her phone to call you and not answer any of my texts? For fuck’s sake”

  
Archie flashes him a cryptic look. “Maybe try apologising to her in person. But anyway, I gotta run. Jack’s still making me clean the music room as detention for not being in bed past curfew last night, though thankfully I _wasn’t_ since someone else was in our room past curfew.”

  
“Oh Veronica, Veronica” Chuck sighs with a smile, watching Archie gather all his things and stuff the book on developing arts into his little backpack quickly. “Hey if you want her, go for it”

  
Archie’s eyes widen a bit, expecting nothing less than Reggie’s obnoxious hoots and laughter. “That’s.. not what I meant freaks. See you guys at practice.” He vividly hears Chuck telling Reggie _he wants her dude, he totally wants her_ as he walks away.

 

 

 

 

 

 

“Hey-“ Archie is just about to turn the corner and head back to the main building before he bumps into Jughead, a stack of books and some gummy worms and onion rings from the cafeteria on top of it slipping from his slight arms. Archie is muddled for a moment before realising what happened, and kneels down to help him pick up his stuff.

  
“Back again?” Archie asks casually, passing Jughead one of his crime novels.

  
“Hey. This is my domain.” The blue eyed boy reminds him, and Archie chuckles because he already knows. Jughead spends most of his time divided between the library and the back of the courtyard where he eats. Head in a book, or his laptop, the headphones Archie had given him as a Christmas present last year practically always attached to him somehow; blocking out the rest of the school. Jughead rooms with some of the other boys on the lacrosse team, and he finds it nicer if he can just avoid them until the clock strikes curfew. “It’s a nice library anyway”

  
“Well, it should be” Archie grins, placing the pack of gummy worms that Jughead can’t reach with his hands full of things. “I’d love to stay with you Jug but I gotta go clean the music room, and-“

  
“Oh at UCA?” Jughead looks alarmed.

  
“Uh yeah. Me and another girl, why?”

  
He sees his friend struggle to reach into his book bag and fish for the enveloped letter that surprisingly, isn’t crumpled. He blinks at it a few times before passing it over. “Do you mind giving this to whoever the girl is, and ask her to pass it to Betty? She.. hasn’t been answering her phone I think she might have turned it off or maybe she’s not in the mood or..”

  
“It’s cool Jughead. I’ll give it to her.” Archie agrees, holding up the letter like a promise.

  
Jughead nods earnestly then, a little sigh of relief escaping his pursed lips. “Okay then. Have a good detention dude.”

 

 

 

 

 

  
x:x

 

 

 

 

 

  
The locker room door flies open, and there’s the sound of gasps and chatter as the three girls enter. Veronica looks up from her phone, where she’s been checking her reminders and the last text from her doctor for her next prescription, and sees Josie, Cheryl and Midge. The former two with their hands locked together, and a gloomy looking Midge following.

  
“No _way!_ Did anyone see it?!” Cheryl sounds bewildered, and her brown eyes blown wide with surprise.

 

Midge shrugs and settles on the bench with a sigh. “Oh, I don’t know!”

  
“What’s going on?” Veronica asks, switching off her phone and pulling the towel from her wet hair. She never swam a lot growing up, but since it’s become one of her regular physical education practices here she’s started to become better and it’s even began growing on her. She’s still on the bottom of the totem pole in speed though, which is another thing she’ll have to work on.

  
“Nothing” Cheryl’s tone is careless, but she has a little sly grin on her plump lips. “Midge was just telling us..”

  
Before she can continue the sentence Josie shushes her, dropping down on the seat next to Midge with an apologetic arm over her shoulder. The petite girl doesn’t brighten, though, she doesn’t do so much as react even as other girls have started peeling their swimsuits off and hitting the showers and Cheryl stands there with her stupid giggles.

  
“-that her ex boyfriend is a feign..”

  
“Cher, don’t say anything if Midge doesn’t want anyone to know”

  
Cheryl rolls her eyes. “Of course, if not only the entire Foxcroft student body already knows about it. By dinner everyone here will know too so there’s no point keeping it a secret, yeah?”

  
“What?” Veronica pesters. She abandons the towel and leans against the granite sinks, much more amused about this.

  
“It’s about Moose” Cheryl says quickly, Josie sighs but she looks a little amused herself. “The rumours from last year are still true, and it wasn’t a one time thing!”

  
“Moose? Why?”

  
“Tell her” Cheryl challenges.

  
Midge puts a hand to her forehead like she’s sick. “No”

  
“Oh, whatever. He was totally hooking up with Kevin at the homecoming dance- and Chuck and Archie Andrews caught them!”

  
Veronica bites her unfiltered comment back. She’s a little surprised, but she can’t deny that last night was so crazy, anybody could’ve been with anyone in secret. Then again, it was Archie who caught them... she whispers a little _damn_ to herself because he did that twice last night. Bad timing, he must have.

  
“Apparently Archie was the one who told Chuck.. and he had such a big outburst. You know how he is” Midge says after a sigh, her shoulders heavy. Josie is rubbing her back consolingly but it doesn’t seem to be much help.

  
Josie nods in understanding. “I can’t believe he did that.”

  
“Maybe he was high on bath salts and was being even _Archie-er_ than he usually is” The red head provides immediately, pulling a makeup bag from her locker and reaching for some chapstick. She uses her fourth finger to rub it on carefully, suddenly more engrossed in her reflection than the conversation.

  
“No way” Josie gives Midge a final hug before tossing a suspicious glance at Cheryl’s figure. “He’s straight edge anyway. Archie doesn’t do drugs or anything like that.”

  
Veronica immediately feels a knot bunch up in her throat at that and she has no idea why. Maybe the painful reminder that if anyone ever knew what she did, they would probably be ashamed or angry, and especially good people like Archie. Her body freezes a little for a moment and like clockwork, Cheryl’s eyes meet hers in the mirror’s reflection. They both stop for a moment and look away. “Seriously?”

  
“Yeah, he is.” Midge jumps up from her seat and scrubs her face with water from the faucet. “You guys if our parents found out.. the last time was- a rumour, but this is like really bad. Really, really bad.”

  
Midge does look terrible, with the distress showing in her veiny blue under eyes and unkempt hair. Josie and Cheryl will help pepper her up with makeup and assuring talks, but Veronica still wishes she could do something more. For now though, her eyes glance at the clock and she has to run to the music room before Covington doubles the sentence on her detention for last night.

 

 

 

 

  
x:x

 

 

 

 

  
Archie makes it to the music room before Veronica does. She comes bursting through the door just as he finishes talking to Vice Principal Flemming about the ground of their detention today. She says that they have to clean up all the instruments and rearrange everything neatly until the room is spick and span, and Veronica’s face visibly startles when she sees Archie behind the door.

  
“Hey, it’s you!” He says, grinning suddenly. “What did you get detention for?” Veronica’s face drains of colour.

  
She bites her lower lip. “Being out past curfew?” She says, which after a moment of realisation for him and slow horror for her, makes Archie laugh.

  
“Perfect then. So was I, but hey you knew that right?” He replies cheekily, shooting her a wink before turning around to inspect the instruments on the left rack. “So, are you enjoying it here?”

 

Veronica takes a weary moment to stand there and slowly put her bag down. She’s not so sure how spending hours of detention cleaning up a dusty music room with Archie is going to be, even though she’s not sure why.. but to hell with it.

  
“I’m okay. I do miss New York” she admits, and that’s much as he needs to know, walking up next to him and reaching for one of the dusters.

  
“I would too” Archie nods, understandably. They’re standing next to each other and a sneaking part of Veronica just really wants to glance sideways so she can see his profile and the way he looks calm but focused while he sorts through things, just the tall hard stature of him making her feel tingly in her legs. “If I lived in New York.”

 

“Let me guess, you want to know why I moved here right?”

  
This time she’s thankful that she isn’t sneaking glances, because Archie does turn to look at her. She doesn’t stop the instinctive reaction when her arms freeze and he’s looking at her with this face- earnest, completely open and concerned, she can read all and every little nuance and flash of emotion. That kind of pure honesty just in the way someone looks at someone else is so refreshing- no masks, no walls. “No way.. I mean, not for lack of wanting to. But I uh, I get it. It’s your personal life.”

  
Veronica is starting to feel like an open book too with him, because her lips break in an uncontrollable smile, she doesn’t say anything in response except covering her grin with her hand and Archie blinks at her with an amusement in his eyes.

  
“What?”

  
“It’s just..” her eyes shift down to their feet, he has some smart sport shoes on and she in her Chanel heeled booties, but he’s still so much taller than her. “You are literally the first person here who’s said that. Everyone else is like, why did you leave? Did you get expelled? Oh, did you sleep with your best friend’s boyfriend?”

  
“People say that to you?” Archie’s eyes widen.

  
Veronica nods. “Just what I’ve heard so far”

  
“Well I shouldn’t be surprised..” he says then, in a lower tone. “People here love to spread gossip. They practically live for it.”

  
“Yeah” Veronica knows that there’s a gossip surrounding Archie now too, one he’s playing a big roll in. She stops arranging things and watches as he separates the clutter of triangles and sticks into two piles. “I did hear what happened. It’s no big deal to me”

  
“Well, which version did you hear? It’s probably not true” Archie says with a sigh. Veronica notices his baseball tee and jeans are unwrinkled and just fitting enough that they stretch over his straining muscles, and he smells like expensive cologne and a bit of rain, and she has this sudden crazy desire to bury her face in his neck and kiss him hard.

  
“Veronica?” Archie repeats. “Are you listening?”

  
He has a sly smirk on his face, like he _knows_ she was just lost in a daydream while checking him out, and if possible her face grows even hotter. “Oh.. uhm, yeah. What did happen? I mean- if you don’t mind me asking, that is.”

  
Archie shrugs and busies himself with the cleaning. “I don’t mind. I’d rather people hear the truth than some twisted fake version of it. Moose and I have been friends since we were in elementary school, us and Reggie. Reggie drifted away in middle school when Chuck moved here, but when high school started Chuck and I became friends too, so it’s all good now. Well- Chuck has always been the louder one out of all of us.”

  
“I get it” Veronica says slowly, deciding to busy herself too so they don’t stand awkwardly. “I’m guessing Chuck and Moose never got along as well as you did?”

  
“It’s not that. He has a tendency to think our business is his business too, and well.. we don’t usually keep secrets from each other. But I still don’t think he should’ve acted like an asshole.”

  
“Totally. And, I’m guessing the part about you being the one who exposed them also isn’t true?” She inquires.

  
Archie snorts and regards her with amusement. “No. _That_ was Ethel Muggs.”

  
“Ugh- that psycho bitch?” Archie nods in affirmation. “God, I’ll have to deal with her later.”

  
Archie laughs, delighted with this little bit of spit and fire. He’s never had a girl who challenged him, one that didn’t fall at his feet or turn into putty in his hands, and as thrilling as that can be he likes this evidence that Veronica has a burning spirit to match her flawless looks. “I feel kind of bad though.. this is my first detention and they’re gonna tell my parents”

  
“They will?” She sighs a little “Hey.. this is your first detention?” Archie nods and like a switch her eyes light up brilliantly. “Let’s do something.”

  
“What exactly?” He sounds a little scared as Veronica tugs him by the sleeve of his shirt, although the slightest amount that her knuckles brush against the heel of his palm is already deliberating and he tries not to focus on it.

  
Veronica laughs. Not the same one as the first night they met, but bigger and cheerier like this time she actually had something genuinely funny she couldn’t resist laughing at. It makes the ends of his lips raise in a smile. “Let’s play some music.. I don’t know it could be fun. It’ll be fun.”

  
“No” he says haughtily. “What if we get caught messing around?”

  
She pouts at him then, a stunt she perfected when she was five years old- to always get what she wants. “You don’t know what you’re missing being so good. Just come on!” He eyes her speculatively for a moment, the devilish grin and her eyes gleaming excitedly. With a lot of enthusiasm she skips away somewhere to the back, and Archie finds himself following her with that same exhilaration as last night when they poured alcohol into the punch.

  
Archie hesitates. “You want me to play guitar? That’s it?”

  
“The electric one” Veronica says solemnly, her tiny hand tracing the shiny metal. “Play something fun and I can sing. Promise I’m not terrible”

  
“Of course you can sing” he says with an impressed smile. “I’ll give it a try”

  
“You won’t regret it” Veronica waits for him to get into the melody before she sings something, a generic mix of pop songs and her own little additions and when she does a little dance and moves closer to him on the bench, Archie feels she’s so close that he can smell the sweetness on her skin and his breaks out in goosebumps just at thought of his lips running on her. He hopes she doesn’t notice.

  
“You sound really good, actually. Like really good” he has to say because it’s true. Her voice is melodious and playful and a bit theatrical, he notices. “You have a good theatre voice”

  
“I was Evita in Evita The Musical once.” She informs him.

  
“So you’re into music too” Archie’s eyes are sparkling as he looks at her. “Look- let’s do something else. I’ll play a beat to a song and you try to guess what it is, alright?”

  
“Yes!” She claps, liking to see him having fun already. And it is- really fun. She’s half giggling and half dancing as he goes from playing a shred version of _smells like teen spirit_ on the electric guitar, which she guesses, all the way to one of the famous _the chainsmokers_ songs she’s heard on the radio with the drums. Archie playing the drums is something she could get used to seeing, Veronica thinks.

  
In fact she discovers how talented he is with every instrument, and when they’re over an hour into the game and he’s holding a ukelele, sitting with his legs folded on the bench next to her playing a song that sounds so sweet but she can’t for the life of her remember what it is.

  
She finds herself not thinking about the game anymore and swaying to the music, an unbelieving smile on her lips as Archie hums the tune to his serenade for her, and his fingers work the music. He’s surprisingly graceful when he plays, for such a big man, and Veronica feels the ground they’re on shifting beneath her because there’s a million thoughts flying in her brain. _he’s so.. why did I have to meet him NOW?_

  
“Did you get that one?” Archie looks up at her with those big brown eyes. “You gonna finally admit defeat?”

  
“I was distracted” she concedes, giving him a meaningful look.

  
“I’m Yours. Have you heard it?” Archie grins at her smugly. This feels almost heart lifting and dangerous, because it’s so much _fun_ and he’s taking her flying when she’s been drowning for too long. And she she’s almost sorry when the detention ends and they’re back to being at school.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  
She says goodbye to Archie by the late afternoon, and is feeling in such a good mood when Vice Principal Flemming approaches her. She’s holding out Veronica’s phone, and passes it to her with a plain face. “It’s your father, Miss Lodge. Claims he has something important to talk about.”

  
She makes a horrible face at Vice Principal Flemming, and unsurely takes the phone. This isn’t going to be good. “Hi daddy.”

  
“Hello Veronica.” She can hear that cunning edge to his voice which means this call is probably nothing sincere. “How are you?”

  
“I’m fine.” _you finally called?_

  
“Taking care of yourself? Caused any trouble?”

  
“No” she mutters, rolling her eyes but sending a mental thank you note to Covington for not informing her parents yet. “And yes, I’m _fine_ ”

  
“Good then, that’s good...” He seems to be busy doing something else because Veronica can hear his secretary and some other people talking in the background.

  
“Daddy” she says “How’s mom? Where is she?”

  
“What’s that?- I actually have something I want to discuss with you.”

  
“Mom” she repeats, fighting for patience. This sudden urge of missing her probably stemmed from the voice of her father she hadn’t heard in so long. “I wanna talk to her. Why haven’t you called? I want to talk to her and _abuelita_.. daddy?”

  
“Listen _mija_ , I want your help with something” he says vaguely. “Theodore is agreeing to put in a dealership with us but he’s asking for three signatures.. as the third shareholder of the company-“

  
“No, I want to talk to mom. What are you talking about did you- did you really just call me for this? Dad.. _Dad_!”

  
“What? Look- I’m sorry, _mija_ but things are crazy here. The papers for Theodore.. I’ll need your signature on them”

  
“Daddy!” She forces herself not to scream in the middle of the hall. “I don’t want _anything_ to do with your papers and the business because I’m not your employee, I’m your daughter, half way across the country from home!”

  
Her father goes silent on the other end of the line, leaving Veronica a moment of frustration and annoyance.

  
“Calm down, Veronica. Lower your tone so we can speak civilly.”

  
Veronica wants to hit something. “Dad. Please.. I just want to talk to _abuelita_ at least, will you tell her to call me?”

  
“Right. I’ll tell her that.”

  
“Thank you!” She sucks in some air through greeted teeth. “Well, nice talking to you.”

  
Hiram suddenly makes a hurried sound to alert her. “Veronica! I’ll be sending the papers over to you at school, and you just sign and return them understand? I’ll give you a hefty allowance for it..”

  
“ _No_ ” She can feel their iron bands of anxiety tighten around her chest, making it hard to breathe. “No! What are you talking about? I never said I wanted to do that”

  
“Oh Veronica” her father sighs impatiently. “Of course you _have_ to. You know how much that asshole is worth, and getting our business tied to him will make your next birthday party a lot bigger, more personal accounts at your favourite stores, we can go anywhere of your choice for vacation all Christmas break. Isn’t that what you like?”

  
“Dad, we could get those things even before!” She starts pacing a little circle back and forth in agitation. “Please”

  
“It’s not a point for discussion, Veronica.” He snaps. “You’re our daughter and you’ll do as we say. I know you’re still feeling a bit sensitive after everything that happened, and that’s okay. You’ll be all better soon enough. After how horrid this year has been, we deserve something good right? Now look, I’ve got to say goodbye but I’ll send the papers over.”

  
Furious, Veronica hangs up the call and slams her hand that’s holding the phone into a locker. She winces at the noise and sees if it’s broken, because it hurts, and this pain is exactly what she doesn’t like to feel.

 

 

 

 

 

The girls are still at practice now, and Veronica can feel her feet moving fast across the floor until she’s up the stairs at their dorm and the door hits the wall with a slam. If she were back in her bedroom in New York she’d fill her clawfoot tub and put those bath salts in and never come up, but now she reaches for her makeup bag in her drawer.

  
A short while later Veronica is crying in the middle of her bed, phone discarded somewhere aside as the tears spill like burning acid and in her hand she’s clutching the bottle of pills. She knows she shouldn’t take them, especially in this school where someone could see her but she needs something to calm her down. She just wants to feel better, so without thinking about it too much she opens the bottle. Instead of her usual two, Veronica takes a double dose and hopes to god she isn’t fucking up.

  
She waits for the effect to take over, and that’s when she stares into nothing as the painful memories come back to her one by one. The pregnancy alone was no picnic, but having Hiram and Hermione Lodge as her parents is the one thing she wish she could’ve changed in that situation. She remembers how she had told her parents in the sitting room after Sunday church with him there, never expecting to be so brutally berated by her own father and completely neglected by her mother. She remembers how she was afraid that soon people would know from her belly, because every time she walked past a mirror she’s reminded of this thing that her parents always put it- _the bad part of her._ She remembers how she had stupidly thought they would support her and help her through the procedure softly, and how she left home to come here that one cold evening in the late summer. Every single time, they had pushed her away. And now, they’re still pushing her away.

 

The pills she had taken make her feel a little less overwhelmed so her eyes flutter close but she doesn’t breakdown and cry like she really wants to. It feels like a mere thirty seconds though, of floating until Betty opens the door and sees her laying in bed.

  
“Are you sick?” She asks plainly, Veronica notices she didn’t bother to change or even drop her hockey stick before coming and checking why she didn’t come to practice.

  
“I just feel a little queasy. I wanna lay down” Veronica replies blankly as she curls her body up underneath the covers so Betty doesn’t see her pills.

  
“Okay, but you need to go to dinner in a bit. I’ll shower and we can go together”

  
“Wait-“ she almost feels like her stomach is on fire as she reaches into her bag for the envelope from Archie earlier. “The skinny kid. Gave this to Archie, for you” she explains succinctly.

 

Betty looks almost astonished but as her fingers brush the white paper her eyes seem to run with a different kind of tender excitement, a look Veronica hasn’t seen on somebody since her old friends had crushes on some guys that ended up becoming their boyfriends later on. Her thighs move in the little skirt as she contemplates it, toys with it, before finally leaning forward and pressing a kiss to Veronica’s warm forehead. “Thanks.”

 

 

 

 

 

She doesn’t open the seal until she’s locked herself in their shared bathroom, and drops her stick in the corner before hopping up on the counter and ripping it open.

 

_I just wanted to make sure you’re okay. We had a nice time yesterday, I have to admit. But I know it wasn’t nice before that and you can talk to me about it if you want. Or if you don’t want to, that’s fine too. I hope your hand isn’t hurting anymore, and I get that you probably turned your phone off today but I had to reach out. Meet me at the library after dinner? If you want to._

_  
Jughead._

 

Betty holds the light paper until their ends start folding a little, and she can’t help but want to cry because her heart is moving after she reads it. She dangles her legs from the counter and bites her lip, lost in thought.

 

 

 

 

 

 

x:x

 

 

 

 

 

  
By the time they make it to the dining hall, Veronica feels like her head is about to fall off because it’s so heavy. She’s not even changed from the morning, the white school shirt untucked and making a crumpled mess over her grey skirt. Inside the blazer her shoulders are burning, and when the girls make it to their table Veronica flings it off and takes a deep breath. She doesn’t care about how good or bad she looks, she doesn’t care who’s seeing, for the first time the only thing she cares about is getting through this dinner without passing out because the room is starting to tip sideways and she knows she should have _slept off_ the pills before moving around.

  
“Uh oh. Bad news at 3 o’clock B” Sheila looks suddenly constipated, her eyes growing wide as she turns back around quickly.

  
“Oh hell..” Betty is muttering as Veronica sees the tall and sleek Adam Crisholm walking towards the group of them. “Food. Let’s all get food”

  
The seven or so of them start moving towards the buffet table in a practiced hurry, although Betty is more accurately clinging behind Veronica’s sleeve as if to hide herself. “Can he stay away from me, already?”

  
She sounds agitated but Veronica only shrugs, not knowing what else to do. She piles rotisserie chicken and ham and a load of vegetables on her plate and doesn’t leave Betty’s side until everyone is done and they move back to their table- traveling in a group. The notion doesn’t last though, because Adam is taller and much more stern than all of them, he manages to squeeze his way through the crowd anyway.

  
“Hey Betty, can I talk to you?” He sounds genuine, for the most part Veronica notes. She keeps her expression blank. “This is getting kind of absurd honestly. You don’t need to avoid me every time we’re in the same room.”

 

“Just drop it Adam, it’s over” Betty says with a heavy sigh. The other girls have sat down but Veronica feels obligated there, an awkward third party position she does _not_ want to deal with, but then another line of sight comes into view and she tugs Betty’s shirt sleeve rapidly.

  
“Uh we can’t talk, we have to go” she throws in the blond guy’s puzzled direction, before whispering to Betty. “You’re _crazy_! Reggie’s coming over here.”

 

They consider sitting at the table if it weren’t for the fact that Reggie is friends with all of their friends, and would whole heartedly walk up to the table if he had to. Instead Betty takes Veronica’s hand and runs for the unused stage rostrum that’s big enough to hide both of them. Veronica’s hair is flying in her face and she can’t see until they’re squatting down.

  
“Are you serious? We’re hiding now?”

  
“Shh! Just until he goes off” Betty whispers sharply.

  
They both peek their heads out, a terrible idea because Reggie completely makes eye contact with Veronica. And as soon as his surprised face is gone he’s already jogging over to them with intention.

  
“Betty! Come here”

  
“I don’t want to _talk_ to you, Reggie!” She cries, acting on instinct and running off the stage as fast as she possibly can. And she’s fast, there’s practically smoke on her heels and it’s a comical sight to see one of the most prim and proper girls in school running at full fledged speed in between every table.

  
“What is her problem?” Reggie sounds furious, just as Veronica stands there dumbfounded for a moment watching in horror when Betty comes and collides with Adam. She says a loud _fuck!_ before sprinting back around that everyone in the dining hall hears, and they’ve slowly started to turn heads and look.

 

Reggie runs off and tries to make it to Betty, and then Veronica’s attention is pulled when she sees Kevin and Moose both walking in the dining hall doors- and the _instant_ whispers erupting like wildfire around them. She’s spent enough time with Kevin to know and enjoy him, and right now the utter look of misery on his face as he walks pass everyone saying things like _home-wrecker_ and _man stealer_ turn him a sad shade of red.

  
She had the same feeling before, when Archie looked sad too, and she knows the cause of all this- deciding that fuck being high as a kite right now, her jelly like legs make their way to the girl with red bow in her hair and a smug smile on her thin lips.

  
“Ethel!” Veronica calls and waves, hoping to do this as perfectly as possible. Ethel looks up and sees Veronica standing there, hand on her hip.

  
“What’s up, Veronica?”

  
“I’m so sorry to hear that your dad lost his job” she says, faux sincerity dripping from her tone. There’s a general gasp and whoever Ethel’s friends are turn to look at Veronica too, interested.

  
“Excuse me?”

  
“Forgive me that statement isn’t right, yet”

  
Ethel narrows her eyes at Veronica. “What are you talking about?”

  
“You are an asshole, Ethel.” Veronica says candidly. “Because isn’t it your father, Manfred Muggs who owns the finance house in Vermont? Right.. it’s a lovely building- with my last name on the wall.” She takes one step closer until her face is hovering above hers, never losing her stone cold stance to prove a point “So if you think, that you can fuck with me- or _any_ of my friends, you’re in for a rude awakening, okay? Don’t worry about it though, if all else fails you’d be an excellent candidate to run the tabloids. It would just be sad that if the next time I see you.. that statement actually becomes true”

  
Ethel’s eyes widen. She opens her mouth to say something, but Veronica suddenly feels positively nauseous and she expertly flips her hair and walks away to end the conversation. There’s a loud chatter and claps that follow, Veronica smirks to herself in satisfaction.

  
She almost forgets about how heavy her head feels, caught up in the gloating afterglow when Betty reaches her and grips her shoulder to stop herself. By now, Reggie is caught behind a line of chairs Betty had pushed and her eyes are darting around the room for Adam, in a confused limbo they both turn is separate directions but twist together and bump into another body, someone taller, and Veronica’s head is spinning wildly after it clashes with Betty’s.

  
“Jughead?” Betty almost shrieks.

  
“Betty!” He looks astonished too.

  
“Veronica!” She hears a loud scream that she’s almost positively sure is Cheryl’s, but she doesn’t have time to think about it. When the painful bang on her head finally sends her into enough pain again, and the effect of all four pills from before is suddenly rushing down in her veins like a heavy rain of blood all at once, and her feet lose footing first before everything around her goes black- she doesn’t stay awake long enough to feel her head hit the ground.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I gotta know your opinions on the varchie situation right now, this chapter we got to see Veronica’s relationship with Hiram- and to spend more time with veronica and her friends and archie with his which I enjoy. Where do you guys stand with the Betty ships, too? Leave a comment and interact with me on tumblr @ff16xo 🌟  
> ‘till next time!


	5. chapter five

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “when the lacrosse and field hockey teams at Foxcroft and UCA go head to head against rival school, the brilliant and equally posh Illyria- drama ensues. Someone from Veronica’s past (Millicent Baudelaire) makes snide comments of her life in New York, unravelling some dark issues in front of her new friends. While Archie, and the varsity team captain of Illyria (Carter West) have been enemies for years. Carter is still bitter over Mary putting his father in jail, and Archie’s never forgotten how his dad screwed Fred over business illegally once. All this and an intense passion for the sport leads to chaos.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hi againn. Sorry ch 5 has been late, but my life has been crazy LOL. So anyways I’m super excited to share this chapter with yall, because it involves a plot that my good sis yani and I came up with ofc ♥️ creds to her for some of the one liners and nicknames, too! 
> 
> from last chapter :- vik, tiff, AK, lizzie, emily & gabbi. I’m thrilled with all the love 💕♥️ 
> 
> This chapter is also especially dedicated to vik and milly, you’ll see why 🙊 
> 
> enjoy reading ~~~

 

 

 

 

 _super rich kids with nothing but lose ends_  
_super rich kids with nothing but fake friends_

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“Veronica.”

 

Her eyelids are heavy but all she can see are some dark shadows, all shades of red and black and grey. She’s trying to lift her head or blink her eyes open; grasping to the familiar and tender voice as if it’s anchoring her back on her feet.

 

“Hey.. Veronica” It’s Betty, sitting at the side of Veronica’s bed with one hand enclasped on top of hers warmly, her voice tight with concern. “You’re okay V.. we’re here with you”

 

The sides of her head are still throbbing faintly, becoming a dull ache. She’s squinting, trying and failing to get up and then seeing beyond Betty’s worry creased face to Cheryl, Josie, Toni and Sheila all around her.

  
“Veronica you’re awake.. oh fuck.. you’re okay V- fuck” Sheila tosses a pillow out of the way and plops herself down next to her.

  
“Language Miss Wu!” They all don’t budge but Veronica is searching confusedly for the voice, pitched and thick with an accent, until she finds it in the form of a petite woman, scurrying around the room quickly, clad in her dark grey staff uniform looking cross as ever. She’s still muttering irritated sayings under her breath as she works, throwing stray clothes into a waste basket and shooting glares at the girls.

  
It’s then that her breathing eases a little. She allows herself to lay back on the pillow and stare at the ceiling, blocking out Monroe’s voice and the pain and all the fuss.

  
“What the hell happened Veronica?” It’s Josie, sounding scared, and Veronica sighs as she steadies her gaze on all of them. “We should still send you to the nurse”

  
_No. No, they can’t find out. Please, make this go away. Shit.. what the hell have I done?_ “No. No!” Her hand shoots up in defence, like she’s shielding herself from them or maybe them from herself. “No. I’m fine.”

  
She knows that none of them believe her even remotely- if the worrisome glance Betty and Toni exchange means anything. Or the upset way that Sheila holds her hand, Veronica clenches her jaw and wishes on every last star that they just buy it.

  
“We wanted to send you to the nurses right when you fainted. I knew you’d been sick today, but Cheryl said we should wait it off, right?” Betty explains, her breath stopping every few seconds, turning around to her crimson haired cousin at the back of the group at the same time Veronica does- who looks half guilty and another half unreadable, totally blank. She stands a little distance away and remains motionless, making the eye contact that Veronica needs to tell her _thank you._ She doesn’t do anything though, just chews on her plump lower lip nervously and her fingers busily picking the edge of her short skirt.

  
“We probably still should” Betty says decidedly, already getting up quickly to get the nurse.

 

Veronica’s heart shatters with panic as she reaches out for Betty’s hand and pulls on it hard.  
“No no no! Betty I’m fine, I’m fine” she tries to assure.

  
The girls look between them all a little concerned, but as far as they can see Veronica doesn’t look too bad. And she’s trying her best to widen her eyes and force a smile, a facade that’s been long on the making.

  
“Fine then, but you gotta rest baby girl” Betty agrees with a sigh.

  
“Of course B convinced Monroe to let you just come here” Toni says with a little smile, moving her hand forward so she caresses Veronica’s silky hair, laid out on the pillow, softly. She knows she looks like shit. She always sweats a little when she takes more than she should of the pill, and after crying and effectively removing all her makeup that way- there’s no doubt that she looks pathetic. “She is every teacher’s favourite too.” Toni adds softly.

  
Veronica half laughs at the truth while everybody else giggles, the blonde in subject only biting her lip with a good natured shake of her head. As much as Veronica _hates_ everyone seeing her like this, _pitying_ her, it’s no secret that these girls cheer her up like nobody else. “That’s ‘cause they don’t know the _real_ her.”

  
Betty checks her forehead for a fever, and then caresses it adoringly one last time to make sure she’s okay. “I’m okay. I promise.”

  
“Off to bed you two” Monroe says snappily at both Josie and Cheryl. “And especially you, Mr Andrews! _Back_ to your dorm!”

  
Veronica’s eyes snap up as Cheryl and Josie sigh. She hasn’t even realised until now that Archie, with all his red hair messily to one side on his head, tall and perfect body is leaning against her half open door frame. He looks super worried- like there’s bags under his eyes that are drooping. And that little look of lost in his eyes, the one that makes him look _innocent_ and endearing and crushes Veronica’s heart every time when she looks at him because she can’t believe someone their age still has _that_ , is trying desperately to meet hers. She’s shocked to see him there at all, rubbing her thighs together suddenly cautious of her skirt flying up or something worse. But Archie’s gaze is focused, even when Monroe swats his chest repeatedly with a towel until she’s pushing him out of the door, and Veronica feels her heart beat easing again.

 

“Archie?” Veronica doesn’t realise she says his name until Betty nods.

  
“Of course, he picked you up right away and carried you here.” Betty informs her.

 

 _Oh_. Now it’s her who’s searching for him, and that feeling that comes along whenever she’s been with him. Suddenly, she remembers how good today had been before everything terrible happened- the pure comfort and fun and the way she could forget every one of her woes when she was with him without having to do this to herself. It was good, and she had never meant to ruin something that good. But of course, for her, it never ends up that way.

 

 

 

 

 

  
x:x

 

 

 

 

 

  
After she promises that she’ll be okay, Josie and Cheryl return reluctantly to their shared room. Cheryl hasn’t said a single word, which is rare, but Veronica doesn’t comment and lets Betty fight to let her sleep while Monroe forces to have a shower until the latter wins the battle in the end. She enjoys feeling clean and fresh afterwards, and tells herself just how _fucking close_ that was.

  
That night, Archie doesn’t sleep well either. He’s stuck replaying the moment that her raven haired head hit the floor, making a colliding sound he swears was real but no one else seems to have heard it- how her eyes rolled in the back of her head and that stunning, cheerful, vibrant face lost all of its colour in the very last moment before her legs collapsed like jelly and she was black out. Archie had never panicked so fast in his life, that _immediate_ fight or flight reaction in his gut kicking in. As soon as the gasps erupted and everyone around him clouded up, standing around her in a crowd. He didn’t cower though, running straight past everyone to where she lay motionless on the floor. Was there blood seeping out under her dark hair? Is her skin really this hot? Her body feels so light when he lifts it up that he’s practically flying to her room, her weightless, lifeless looking body terrifying every atom inside his body and it reaches the ends of his being, the unbearable, bleating fear doesn’t disappear until her eyes open again, her hand grasping the sheets and regaining their strength.

 

Archie tosses in his bed that night. Is she okay? What is she feeling? What happened? Ever since he was little, his dad always said he liked to make stories in his head. And the most important part was always the end- it had to be a happy ending.

  
That night though, he can’t make up a happy ending that satisfies himself enough to sleep.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  
Veronica rushes to get dressed the next morning. She finally puts on her grey blazer and skirt, deciding to put her hair up in a twisted chignon with little braided pieces so that she looks extra done and well after yesterday’s debacle. She gets out her dangling diamond earrings, that stand out with her hair out of the way, and layers some long beaded necklaces with shorter diamond ones and a pearl choker before leaving.

  
As she’s out before everyone else, Veronica heads straight to the one place she knows she needs to be. Coach Clavell’s office. Yesterday was supposed to be a crucial practice before tomorrow’s match against their biggest rivals, the Illyria Preparatory. But with her being MIA, and not telling Coach beforehand, the situation doesn’t look good for her.

  
“Veronica!” Coach Clavell addresses her before she can. As soon as she runs into Coach’s little home office space, she can smell some protein shake being made and fresh fruit, the delicious waft of peanut butter in the air makes her stomach clench. She’s _starving_ , and hasn’t eaten for almost a day. “There you are, girl. We missed you at practice yesterday”

 

“I missed you too?” Veronica says skeptically, playing with the strap of her backpack.

 

“A little bird told me you had a serious fall last night, and on your head? How are you still up and _walking_?”

  
“I just- I’m fine, Coach I promise” She tries to sound assuring, even though Coach doesn’t look the least bit bought into it as she moves around the table putting more ingredients in the juicer and humming some tune. “I know that.. tomorrow is a big game-“

  
“Hah! Sweetie if you came here to ask me if you’re going tomorrow, the answer is no”

  
Veronica scoffs then, unbelievingly. “But, _why_? Look at me I’m fine.”

 

There’s another rep at the door then and Betty’s fluorescent blonde hair and green eyes appears with a steady smile. “Hi! I’m here to get the uniforms for the girls. What’s going on?”

  
“B. You have to tell Coach Clavell that I’m perfectly fine enough to play tomorrow, right?” Veronica goads, reaching out to Betty’s arm and pulling her in close. She doesn’t look all that sure, but with Veronica’s desperate face seeking her help it doesn’t take much effort to change her mind.

  
“She’s not letting you go?”

  
“You had a _serious_ fall, Veronica..”

  
“Come on Coach” Betty interrupts. “You told me yesterday that she’s one of our best players. And she is fine”

  
“And I promise I’ll be extra extra careful from now on” Veronica adds in. The two of them link their arms together, and in the face of their wide pleading eyes, Coach has to give in.

  
She sighs, the two teenage girls’ faces already lighting up with delight as they squeal and latch onto each other. “Fine, you’re in”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

x:x

 

 

 

 

 

  
A tray clatters on the table next to Moose as Archie pulls his chair out, cringing slightly at the scraping sound and sitting with a sigh. The chocolate haired kid, already donning his varsity jacket over his uniform, is scrolling carelessly on his phone before looking up speculatively. “What are you doing here?”

  
Archie rips open the packet of cookie crisps before pouring them in a bowl with fresh milk and shrugs. “Eating breakfast. What else?”

  
Moose shrugs and shifts in his jacket with a sigh. “You were with Chuck and Reggie yesterday. I’m just surprised to see you here, that’s all”

  
“Come on. I was just trying to level both playing fields.” Archie tries to reason.

  
He rolls his eyes. “Of course. They’re the ones that need their feelings taken care of”

  
Archie bites his first retort back. As much as he’s angry, he’s more frustrated. That his friends can’t work out the situation yet and worst of all, _he_ has to be the dumb mediator that sorts it out every time. “This is getting absurd, dude honestly. They’re your friends. You don’t have to avoid them whenever we’re in the same room. Chuck doesn’t care, okay? No one does.”

  
Chuck and Reggie join them at the table before Archie can say anything else. Reggie’s eating a big bowl of sugary cocoa puffs and Chuck is drinking his protein shake and commenting on the level of unhealthiness and the amount of junk Reggie and Archie shouldn’t be consuming before a big game. They just ignore him.

  
“The Cyclones have got your back, man” Reggie says, ruffling Moose’s hair with a smirk. “And we’re proud of you. I mean Keller is kind of weird but he’s not bad looking.”

  
“Thanks” Moose says dryly. “I’m never gonna get to be with him, though.”

  
“Hey. It’s the first time we’re all single then” Reggie decides, casting a wistful glance over at the girls table. Archie has just realised but Betty and Veronica are sitting there together, along with their roommate and also Kevin Keller. He raises his head a little to see how she’s doing, while Chuck and Moose change the subject to Illyria’s strategy last year and who their weak players are. He and Reggie are both quiet, taking a long look at the girls table before diverting away and then stealing little glances back quickly. They seem engrossed in their conversation, and he wishes he could talk to her too.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  
“How are you up on two feet?” Kevin asks, looking at her incredulously. “That was a _major_ fall, V”

 

“Says you and just about everyone else” Veronica answers, waving once at some girls who can’t stop peering at her from across the dining hall as she pulls out her seat opposite Kevin.

 

Kevin takes a giant bite of his eggs and bacon sandwich, looking distractedly somewhere behind her shoulder in silence. Veronica follows his line of sight and just about giggles when she catches Moose’s eyes for one split second before he looks away. “Enough about me... how are you keeping afloat in the sea of gossip? People still bothering you?”

  
Betty makes a noise of interest from next to Veronica, her mouth full of oatmeal and whatever assortment of fresh fruit she’d decided on. She looks up at them through long blonde lashes.

  
“Nah” Kevin says briefly, and then gives her the same expression he always does when he’s about to crack a joke. “It seems I’m no longer the hot topic around here. Who would’ve thought, most people would be upset about being the centre of bad attention but I happen to appreciate the drama of it.”

 

Veronica snorts comically, exchanging a look with Betty. “Well sorry to break it to you but after the entire student body witnessed the most _epic fall_ since Jennifer Lawrence at The Oscars, I think sadly _I’m_ trending number one”

  
“It’ll blow over guys” Betty says musingly, when one of the school secretaries arrives to their table and promptly lands a package in front of Betty. It’s wrapped rather fancily, almost like a little Christmas present, and it’s written in glittery marker _for my Baby Coop_ in large letters on the top. The blonde shakes her head, unamused but they can see a tint of pink on her cheeks.

  
“Package for Miss Cooper, from Mrs Cooper”

  
The table goes quiet for a moment as she unwraps it, the crinkly festive wrapper revealing a layer of bubble wrap that holds a medium sized box of some _Good Day Chocolate Sleep Supplement_ “because she’s convinced it helps calm me at night” and an elaborate new set of stationery in different shades of pastel pink and blue, with cute little handwritten notes and motivational messages from her mom and dad included.

  
“Cool gifts” Veronica admits, a little surprised. Betty doesn’t seem too surprised about it and everyone else is casual even though Veronica wants to say that it looks like something her mom would’ve got her in middle school.

  
“My mom always sends me care packages” she explains.

  
“And the stationary is a constant” Kevin points out, “The Coopers own and run the _Seattle Times._ So of course their little princess has to be a writing prodigy”

 

Betty looks a little anxious as she arranges the gifts back neatly. “Yes. I mean, they’re professionals and my sister is studying it at college in Italy. But not me. Anyways, maybe your parents will send you something soon too, yeah? Everyone here gets stuff.”

 

“Yeah” Veronica glances down, remembering wryly that the only thing her parents will be sending her soon are the papers to sign for their business... she squashes that thought ruthlessly and turns her attention back to the bowl of oats.

 

 

 

 

 

 

x:x

 

 

 

 

 

  
The next morning, Veronica’s dorm room is up bright and early with everyone getting ready for the game. It’s an away trip, which means they’ll be taking the bus along with Foxcroft’s Cyclones to Illyria today for the game. All four girls are fitting themselves into their perfectly tailored uniforms and spotless shoes for the day, putting up their hair in flawless ponytails and gathering all their things for the day. With the help from each other, everything felt like it was falling into place. This first game is going to be crucial as to who will be captain, and as much nerves should be felt, the girls don’t stress too much. Veronica doesn’t even really care about this team yet, but she knows how important this is to the school- and if there’s anything Veronica Lodge is going to try, she won’t do it half heartedly. Or without winning.

  
They keep that mindset in check when they move downstairs to the dining hall and as they have breakfast, mostly healthy carbs and proteins for energy, this time closely watched by Coach Clavell’s prying eyes. It feels like forever when they’re listening to Coach’s lectures about etiquette when visiting another school, and how to behave during a game, and endless other reminders to upkeep the school’s reputation with their good attitude- all through breakfast up ‘till the time they’re waiting outside the school building in the chilly morning air, legs shaking in their knee high socks and Adidas jackets zipped up to their necks.

  
Veronica is just feeling the weight of her bag on her right shoulder when the Cyclones appear too, and everyone seems to be chit chatting about one thing or another now, Coach Clavell and Coach Burton are re-confirming their itinerary for the day between both parties they represent.

  
Now that the scene makes it all feel real, her heart turns into a big heavy lump stuck in her throat when she turns around. And just like _that_ , Archie comes out from the crowd with his lacrosse uniform and his helmet in one hand, pausing when he sees her from afar. As she’s frozen in her spot, and Archie can see that, that she’s looking at him, he grins and starts jogging towards her. He’s gorgeous. She can’t remember the last time she felt this instinctively _attracted_ to somebody, and the way that feeling washes over her body and heart with an overwhelming heaviness scares the hell out of her. As he jogs the last few steps she can see all the strength and power he has in that body, contrasted with the way his brazen red hair is messy and childlike makes him look innocent. It’s the perfect combination of everything she never knew she wanted, all capsuled into one boy.

 

She smiles back at Archie as he stops in front of her, and he’s looking at her as if her eyes shined the way pretty lights do.

  
“Are you ready for today?”

  
“Yes” Veronica says, smiling from ear to ear. “I would wish you luck, but I know you don’t need it”

  
Archie winks at her, pleased with himself. “I could always use one of your good luck charms. It worked at the dance, after all.”

  
“I should thank you, too”

  
“Uh, I’ll accept it- but for what?” Archie says awkwardly, slinging his bag over his shoulder and fingers fumbling with his helmet.

  
“For the other day” she clarifies, her wide smile turning into a tight lipped grin at the same time that she takes a step forward closer to him, still too far away. “I had a lot of fun, surprisingly. I could say it was the best detention ever.”

  
“Actually I think you should take credit for that. It was your idea, after all”

  
“Yes” she leaves off, thinking clandestinely to that day at detention and how bright everything felt before it crashed down. She should know that it isn’t always going to be like that, and the small moments of brightness that shine in are beginning to feel fewer and fewer in between, but all the more special. All she wants, is to hold on to that desperately. “But it wouldn’t have been the same with anyone else. And... thank you for.. taking such good care of me. I- I know you brought me to my room. I owe you”

  
Archie’s heart jumps at her words, and not just because she’s acting so sweet, but because she’s so _beautiful_. He never thought he’d know a girl as pretty outside of his imagination, but here she is right in front of him in that skin tight skirt with the stretchy material, clinging to her at just the right place and a hot pink tank top that’s utilitarian and doesn’t show off much, but enough to know it would be worthwhile to look if it did. She almost doesn’t even look real, and Archie is filled with awe.

  
“No, no you don’t” he says, grinning affectionately. He has to look down because without her heels, she is so much tinier than him and if it’s even possible- makes her that much more attractive. “But I mean if you want to..”

  
She giggles then, and does something completely unexpected by jumping the last step between them and wrapping her arms around him in a hug. Archie stills, feeling her cheek pressed against his own, the coolness of her skin and the way her entire body is flat against his. It feels like they were made for each other, and just like that, his nerves ease away and he decides to relish it, hugging her back softly and trying as subtly as possible to nuzzle his nose into the crook of her neck. She smells like vanilla and something citrusy too, unlike the rich perfume on her at the dance.

 

  
They’re caught up in the moment when a ray of sunshine hits them and someone else’s voice shakes them both out of it.

  
“Hey!” Betty greets cheerfully. “Well well, what a nice conversation you two are having” her voice is dripping with teasing humour, but both Archie and Veronica feel self conscious as they step away from each other and meet their friend’s eyes. She’s smiling easily at both of them but her gaze is darting suspiciously between the two.

  
“Hey Betts- Jughead?” Archie calls, making both girls turn around. It’s Jughead with both hands buried in his pockets, hat pulled down over his ears.

  
“Juggy? What are you doing here?” Betty looks stunned.

  
“Just wanted to say good luck” he says softly, with a shrug. “I hope you’re alright”

  
Archie glances at his two friends, Betty’s surprised face and Jughead’s pleased one, and mentally nods to himself.

  
“Awh, you didn’t have to” she teases.

  
“For both of you” Jughead clarifies, turning towards the tall red head. Then his eyes fall between them to Veronica and is almost unsure how to address her.

  
She lifts a finger at his direction, attempting to be succinct. Veronica is fully aware she isn’t his favourite person, and he hers. “The Love letter boy, right?” She asks, referring to his letter to her best friend.

  
Betty rolls her eyes and Archie’s jaw drops but Jughead remains cool, countering her with “The girl that fainted in the middle of dinner, right?” to which she can’t do anything but roll her eyes at.

  
“I can’t believe you got up on a Saturday for this” Betty admits, not caring for Jughead’s distaste of publicly showing physical affection- or maybe she’s too overwhelmed for it, and engulfing him in a hug. Jughead looks a little startled at first, taken off his footing with a nervous chuckle before hugging her back. Archie can’t help himself with all the happiness in the air, and seeing his two best friends together decides it’s the perfect time for a group hug, putting his muscular arms around both of them and grinning when Jughead makes a noise of annoyance and Betty laughs.

  
Veronica tries not to watch them, but she is, and it’s honestly endearing just how close they all can be without having up any walls and fronts around each other. She can see that they all truly care for one another, the goodness that is in Archie reflecting in the two of them as well. She smiles small to herself for a second, not meaning for Betty to catch her eye.

  
“Oh V- you come here too!” She exclaims, the only warning before pulling her by the arm and joining her in the hug as well.

  
Veronica giggles. For the first time in a while, she laughs because Archie isn’t letting any of them go and being the strongest- no one can fight him, Betty is half squashed between Veronica and Jughead who is trying to escape and she’s half laughing, half screaming in pain. In that moment of time none of them consider it anything too special, but she’s almost sure, as all of them are- that this will be a memory to hold on to until the very far future.

 

 

 

 

 

 

x:x

 

 

 

 

 

On the bus it’s a mayhem of chattering voices and everybody switching seats, Cheryl and Josie have already bagged the last row of seats for themselves and Betty and Veronica, even though the latter two are stuck behind trying to fit in all their bags and equipment into the storage compartment of the bus. The feminine voices get louder as bodies bump into each other, the occasional fight between some girls about who gets to sit with whom until eventually they get so loud and someone’s hair is pulled; resulting in a ferocious scream and kick in the shin of defence that forces Coach Clavell to shout at all of them and pair them up herself.

 

“I thought this school strove for manners and discipline that are paramount” Coach finally shakes her head at them, silencing the entire bus as it starts to move.

 

Veronica looks over her shoulder at the guilty faces and wonders for a moment if the boys are having the same kind of drama on their bus. She sighs and lays her head back, feeling a little uncomfortable in the tightness of her uniform as she stares out the window and watches them move away from the school building, passing acres and acres of greenery, the library and greenhouse, and finally the _waterfall_. Before leaving past the big campus gates. It only dawns on her now that this is the first time she’s been out of UCA campus for weeks, it feels only a little liberating to be out in the world again even if it is of such an unfamiliar scenery. Back in New York, she only lived a close distance to Spence but it would take almost a half hour to make it back home. There was always some gigantic building being built or renovated, huge billboards of a new opening or the latest movie, cameras at every corner with movies and tv shows being filmed in the city that never slept.

 

“It’s so different here” Veronica comments, shifting towards her left to Toni who is seated next to her. “Quiet. Do you guys ever go into the city?”

  
“We have outings and expeditions” She explains, reaching into her bag for some snacks.

  
“But what about movies, and shopping and places to hang out and go on dates? Or any night clubs?”

  
Toni raises her brows. “The social scene isn’t nearly as decorated as you’re used too, probably. But I wouldn’t know. While everyone else goes back home to their mansions in the gated residential I spend my time out of town at my uncle’s rental flat.”

  
She rips open a pack of sour gummy worms and passes some to Veronica, who decides wisely to decline and prevent any bloating for today. She nods a little sympathetically. “Right. But hey you should totally come visit New York sometime, all of you. It would be fun, I could show you my stomping grounds”

 

The idea of even going back to New York right now is _terrifying_ , but Toni’s face lights up with excitement. “You know, I really am glad you moved here. I don’t know why you did, but I’m just happy that it wasn’t someone completely snobby and pretentious that filled our extra spot.”

 

  
Veronica finds it interesting that Toni thinks that of her, considering _snobby_ and _pretentious_ is exactly the definition of what people used to _know_ her as. But there were never any scholarship students in Spence, so she supposes it was just a matter of never being in the situation. “Not all rich people are the same, I guess. There’s Sheila and Betty..”

  
“Yes, but it’s actually a wonder that Betty turned out so normal considering the family she’s from” Toni says with a big laugh.

  
Veronica’s brows knit together. “What’s with her family?”

  
“Rich white people- what else is there to say?” Toni states simply. Both girls can’t help but double over with laughter, Veronica having to agree with her. “Plus _Cheryl Blossom_ is her cousin. So that says enough.”

 

“The first thing was enough. But, what’s up with you and Cheryl? You don’t like her very much”

 

Toni sighs, stretching her legs out in the small space in front of them. She’s curling the ends of her olive brown hair on two fingers and glances at the red head in subject behind them- in the middle of some discussion with the girls all around her. “When I first got to this school.. it wasn’t very popular amongst the other students”

  
“I get that” Veronica says slowly, waiting for her to say more. Toni looks a little upset, deep in her thought of the memories from her first days here awash in her mind.

  
“For me and Jughead both. It was bad enough that we got here on scholarships, which is exceptionally rare by the way. I first met Cheryl through Betty of course, and she wasn’t very nice from the get go. And that’s fine, whatever, but when my uncle came to send over some of my documents to Covington-“ she stops for a moment but doesn’t meet Veronica’s eyes. “Cheryl started a _rumour_ that, because my uncle was so poor and drove a truck, he sold wild animals for a living and the only reason I was in the school was because he slept with Covington. Which is completely untrue, or course”

  
“Oh my god” Veronica is mortified, tasting distaste in her mouth just at the thought of it. She feels odd with the knowledge now that Cheryl is a way bigger bitch than she knows her to be. “That’s so-“

  
“It was a long time ago, don’t worry” Toni sighs, biting down on a piece of gummy worm particularly hard. “And it’s high school after all, we were like fourteen. Everyone does bad things.”

  
“Ugh. Well you know there are only a few things in the world as ruthless as a spoiled fourteen year old, right?”

  
Toni chuckles, shrugging by way of agreement. “Anyway, it’s not like I’ve forgiven or forgotten. It’ll just.. always be there. Even as things have changed and she doesn’t bother me nearly as much now.” She scowls. “I hate people feeling sorry for me though. A bit of sympathy is nice, but with most of them here- if they don’t hate me.. they practically pity me.”

  
“I know what you mean” Veronica says quickly. “About people feeling sorry for you”

  
“Why?” Toni looks at her curiously. “Who feels sorry for you? I mean, life must be hard as a real life Kathryn Merteuil with Louboutin heels and dripping in pearls and diamonds. I know I’ve felt sorry for you since day one..”

  
Veronica can’t help laughing at the contrary. “Yeah, it used to be like that.” She concedes. “I was a spoiled bitch who pretty much thought the whole world envied me- just like Cheryl, worse than Cheryl. But that just meant it was a far way for me to fall.”

  
“What do you mean?”

  
She hesitates. Toni’s dark gaze is questioning, but wether or not to say it isn’t even a decision Veronica has to consider. “Nothing. That’s a story for another day.”

 

They spend the rest of the bus ride talking, discussing some electro pop djs and the New York comedy central shows that Toni finds fun and interesting. Veronica discovers that Toni can do her own piercings, which is a little scary and cool all at once, and they talk about getting a nose ring or doing something rebellious as that. It feels like a long ride but in the end, they barely feel the time pass by.

 

 

 

 

 

  
x:x

 

 

 

 

 

  
They finally get off the bus by the time it’s eleven, and the sun outside is shining a rather beautiful shade of orange and bright yellow, making them all squint. Everyone rushes to get their things out of the storage while Coach disappears to get in touch with the school’s authorities, telling them to stay put and wait. Veronica takes out her phone to take a selfie with them, something that she always used to do before a football game. It doesn’t feel nearly the same though, and she doesn’t post it on her story like she usually does, her disappearance off of social media contributing to her leaving New York and everyone there as well. Veronica stares down at the picture for a minute, analysing their happy faces and silly smiles. She shuts her phone off when the sound of people approaching them is made known, and looks up to see what must be the field hockey team of Illyria Preparatory.

 

  
“Well well well. Another year, we meet again Poisons.” The front girl comments, her eyes darting at all of them intimidatingly. She looks like she obviously leads the pack, with one hand cocked on her hip and long, glossy blonde hair falling over one shoulder.

 

Veronica stays quiet, unsure what to say but the other girls are quick to step up. She suddenly realises how she’s standing at the very middle of the line up, eye to eye with this new girl.

 

“Vicky. Always nice to see you.” Betty says tightly, remembering her manners and pleasantries with a hint of passive aggressive sarcasm.

 

“Betty” the girl nods in acknowledgment. Another one of them appears next to her and they look strikingly similar, both with cerulean eyes and pointed high cheekbones- except this girl has mid length hair that’s fluorescent bright  _pink_ , perfectly suiting her somehow. 

  
“Cheryl” the second girl acquires, smiling in that same sinister way that Cheryl often does.

  
The Blossom girl on Veronica’s left isn’t one to be phased, quickly prompting in return. “Kennedy.”

 

Things go quiet for a moment and Veronica just wishes Clavell would get here already so they can leave, but she pins a smile on her lips to ease everyone’s tension and the stone cold faces of these girls. It is one quick to fade though, dropping fast into a scoff when she sees who it is that appears from the back of the crowd to the front- taking her place between both girls as if it were here rightful one.

 

“Millicent?” Veronica tries hard not to make her jaw drop. But she actually can’t believe it. Here she was, thinking that she’d officially escaped the jungles of New York and all that her life there once beheld, already acknowledging the changes that this new one has to offer; and seeing this familiar cunning face is like a punch in the teeth sending her right back to square one.

 

“Veronica Lodge!” Millicent sounds surprised herself, but she’s much more collected in her home grounds. All the girls are looking between each other with confused looks, trying to figure out how the two raven haired girls know each other.

  
She covers her mouth with her hand. “So- _this_ is the posh private school in Washington you go to?”

  
“Small world, isn’t it?” Millicent laughs, dryly. “Speaking of, I miss your parents’ pent house. We sure made a lot of memories there right?”

 

Veronica wants to strangle someone, suddenly feeling like she’s backed into a corner and has nowhere to go. These girls aren’t like the _bitches_ from UCA, they’re far worse, and she knows Millie- the girl won’t give it a rest until she’s gotten her thrill out of the torment.

  
“Hm. I actually don’t know what you’re talking about Millie but it’s great to see you too”

  
“Really? You don’t remember our night at the Plaza with your boyfriend.. Nick right? Maybe you were too high, you did always go a little _crazy_ , Veronica.” She mimics the action of a bite, snapping her teeth playfully.

  
Veronica is tempted to _actually_ do something then, because even her new friends are suspicious and none of them know what went on in her life before she moved here- neither does she want them to. But Betty is quick to find a comeback for herself. “How’s rehab treating you Vicky? Sixth time’s the charm?”

  
“Oh- the new money, diamond encrusted Barbie is speaking to me!” Vicky raises a hand to her lips in faux awe.

  
“New money?” Betty scoffs, stepping forward.

  
“Okay- enough.” Veronica interrupts. She ignores the other girls and looks Millie straight in the eye. “Drop it, Millie. I’m sure your mommy and daddy still want their annual invitation over, right?”

  
“Well that depends” the rival girl contradicts. “My mommy and daddy may not be the biggest bloodsucking money guzzlers in New York, but at least they didn’t send me away from home kicking and screaming in the middle of the night to some.. _reform school_ for delinquents. Some of us have it good that way, I guess.” She smirks finally to Veronica, who for some reason just can’t seem to find _anything_ to say. She’s startled by the comment Millie made and is plainly aware that her friends are all suspicious of it too. “Come on, girls”

  
And as she walks away it dawns on Veronica with a burbling sense of dread that this is going to be a _much_ more _interesting_ game than she anticipated.

 

 

 

 

 

  
x:x

 

 

 

 

 

Archie sits at the back of the bus next to Reggie, Moose, Chuck and Adam, mostly because it’s more comfortable. The Cyclones, as well as Coach Burton are all excited as well as slightly nervous for this first game and there’s a lot of slightly hysterical laughter and forced carelessness in jokes. Chuck has his nose in his captain’s notebook where he’s written down their plays, and even Reggie whom Archie’s never seen so serious spends a long time with his earpods in staring out the window thoughtfully.

 

This is a serious game, not only is it the first Varsity scrimmage but it’s against their first and foremost rivals, the Stallions. Archie is thumping his foot to the beat of his own heart when they finally arrive and are greeted by the Stallions in all their red and black glory, smiling smoothly as they watch them get off their bus. Archie doesn’t care, The Cyclones have been unbeatable against the Stallions for years- and that isn’t a tradition he intends on breaking.

 

He intends to keep a cool head, but just the sight of Carter West’s smug fair face makes him pummel with stupid rage. Reggie and Moose are calling after him, not that he hears.

  
“Archie! Oh, here we go” Moose sighs.

  
The Stallions’ team captain is slightly shorter than Archie, giving him an advantage as they stand face to face. He tries not to show any emotion, not that it’s ever been easy for him.

 

“Andrews” Carter says his name slowly, like he’s assessing it. He’s tall with burning blue eyes and almost twice as ripped, always wearing that same bored face like he is now. “Have a good game”

 

“It will be” Archie nods, a hint of a smirk at the ends of his lips. “When we beat your ass like we do every year”

  
Chuck has to covers his mouth in shock.

 

Carter seems startled for a moment, his jaw visibly twitching collecting himself.  “Maybe, but that is more likely to happen than your mom letting my dad out of jail right?” He squints at them.

  
“She didn’t put him in jail, Carter, he was caught red handed and for once had to pay for it. Too bad right?”

  
“ _You’re_ gonna pay for it.” He pushes his fist into Archie’s chest for emphasis, the moment that everyone around them started to breathe anxiously. “When we break you in half out there.”

  
Archie’s a tad closer to feeling that balloon of anger burst, but he swallows it in and keeps his voice steady. “I’m sorry but your dad did it to himself- and my dad too.”

 

“Oh” Carter laughs then, his features brightening with it. “Is _that_ what they thought you in anger management, Andrews? Just apologise and it’s all good?”

  
There’s a moment of silence. Everyone stands on edge, and Reggie sees the twitch in Archie’s jaw and knows he’s furious- and he’s momentarily startled when Archie slams forward towards Carter, towering menacingly over him. Reggie and Moose reach for him, lacrosse sticks in one hand and the other holding Archie’s shoulders firmly. He feels immovable.

  
“Stop Archie” Reggie whispers firmly. “It’s useless. They’re impossible.”

  
Archie shakes his head and turns away from them, following the usual pathway to the field. He can’t have all this past drama involved with today’s game, not if they want to win.

  
“Hey Stallions, sorry about that” Chuck tells the team distractedly, turning to try and see where Archie left to. “We’re excited for the scrimmage, but let’s keep it clean okay? Good.” He says to specifically to Carter, and with a warning glance he turns and leads the team off.

 

 

 

 

 

  
x:x

 

 

 

 

 

“What the fuck was _that_ all about?” Cheryl blurts, dropping her bag on the floor of the locker room as soon as Betty has shut the door behind them. The girls start to fill out the place to stretch and use the bathroom.

  
Veronica takes a seat on one of the benches there, eyeing Illyria’s locker room as she has the rest of their state of the art facilities. It smells a little like dandelions, and their space is not nearly as big as UCA’s, neither as efficiently equipped. Everything at UCA is larger and grander than any other school she’d seen, so this isn’t a surprise.

  
“Kennedy dyed her hair pink” Sheila announces like it’s the hottest news they haven’t all noticed.

  
Cheryl wonders aloud if they think she’s trying to copy _her_ , which they all roll their eyes at and remind her annoyedly that her hair colour is nowhere near the bright pink.

  
“She looks kind of hot” Toni admits, earning a sharp glare especially from Cheryl. “What?”

  
“She’s the _enemy_.” Cheryl reminds her with a dramatic scoff.

  
Veronica decides in the midst of their chatter it’s best that she clears the air even though, for the first time she doesn’t really have a plan on how. “Will you guys forget about whatever Millie said? You must know the bitch is delusional.”

 

“We don’t care, V but how do you know her?” Betty asks tentatively, sitting down next to her raven haired friend. Coach Clavell has put her in charge to make sure that Veronica doesn’t get overheated or dizzy all day, so she keeps a close distance.

  
_How do I know her?_ Veronica stares at Betty, then Cheryl and Sheila who are sitting in a butterfly stretch on the floor. “I’ve known the Baudelaires basically all my life. My dad roomed with hers in Harvard and they’ve been friends ever since. They usually stay over at our place once a year for some.. business conference. So yes, Millie and I have spent _multiple_ of trips together and she does know some of my friends.”

  
She remembers that one time Millie’s god brother came along with them too, because his parents were away and all she remembers of that time is her parents never leaving them in the same room alone and always flickering glares to check on them. She and Millie were around thirteen then, and all she knows is he was excitingly cute to her and she felt thrilled falling asleep knowing he was in the guest room down the hall.

  
“So you two are like, friends?” Josie confirms.

  
“Not by a far shot. Our parents may be friends but Millie’s always been jealous of me. And that night she was talking about... we’d decided to sneak out to a club while our parents were out.” Her lips pout in disappointment at the memory. It had been cold but they didn’t care, dressing in their glamorous glitter, dancing like they owned the world. “Millie told me she’d called one of my guy friends to come meet us, but when I went to the front it was actually my parents- who’d come because they got a call from Millie, saying I forced her to go out and she felt uncomfortable and a bunch of shit that landed me in _insane_ trouble.”

  
“Ugh- why would she?”

  
“She’s a menace, B. She didn’t have a reason. And don’t worry- I’ve been wanting to get revenge for a really long time.”

 

None of them are sure what to say, completely in the dark about anything regarding Veronica prior to her moving here- other than the deliciously perfect front of her family’s life that was always in the presses. They start getting distracted in their own zone and prepping, so does Veronica until Sheila comes and plops herself down on the bench next to her.

  
“We have a post game ritual where we talk and mingle with the other students, and they usually do a whole dinner. I should probably tell you what goes on so you don’t feel like a _total_ loser outsider.” Sheila states good naturedly, smiling quite proudly at herself.

  
Veronica snorts. “Okay then. What’s the _411_?”

  
“You should just stay clear of the Thorne cousins. You know, the Bitch-face Barbies. They’ve been holding a grudge against Cheryl and Betty since freshman year because of some stupid rivalry. Which means they hate all of us by association.” Veronica laughs then, because it sounds so utterly silly when it’s stated as plainly as Sheila is- but they still take it so seriously. “And you already know Millie, so..”

 

“Thanks for the info, buttercup” Veronica sighs, patting Sheila’s hair affectionately as they start to leave for the field.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

She feels jumpy and unsettled as they make it to the field where the scrimmage is to take place, and the Cyclones and Stallions have theirs at the other one across the school building. Just like Foxcroft and UCA, Illyria has enough accommodation for both teams. Right now though, the boys are still here and in their supporter gear, laughing and talking as the girls slowly reach the field. Veronica’s heard that today is actually Homecoming for the students here, and that sends a whoosh of sadness in her core just thinking about _home_ , as all the sights and smells and sounds swirl around her.

 

Everyone else seems anxious but excited. Cheryl and Josie have their hands clasped between them as they stroll along the path towards the field, talking to each other. Betty and Cheryl seem a little on edge even with each other. Veronica twirls her hair on her fingers and follows them until they reach their side of the field.

 

The other team is loud with pre-game excitement, and under cover of all the business Betty bumps her shoulder with Veronica’s. “You still feeling okay V?”

  
“I’m fine.” Betty’s not really looking at her and Veronica follows her line of sight to where the Cyclones are warming up.

  
“Reggie or Adam?” Veronica asks her amusedly. “Or someone _else_?”

  
Betty shrugs, a small smile playing on her lips. “The only hot Stallion is Carter West, but he’s Millicent’s god brother. And Kevin invited me to a study group with him, Moose and Reggie before our first test. Not that I even want to, study with the three biggest meat heads in our school. Anyway I don’t think it’s anything, just a study group of friends.”

  
“Kevin and Moose like each other.” Veronica states, and smirks as she watches Betty groan at the implication. “So maybe there’s more to this ‘study group’ than you think.”

  
Betty shrugs again, and Veronica can see none of it really bothers her. She probably doesn’t feel anything for Reggie, or maybe she likes someone else and just doesn’t want to tell her yet. Veronica decides to pay more attention afterwards and then looks at the boys, scanning the team.

  
She doesn’t realise she’s subconsciously looking for Archie until she sees him fooling around with some guys on the other side of the field, his fiery hair and broad shoulders standing out in the crowd. She watches with awe as the ever-so-innocent Millicent Baudelaire marches her way over there, swaying her hips sweetly until she’s just by him. Veronica just looks closely as he bends his head low to hear what she’s saying to him, and whatever it is obviously delights him by the way his ears turn pink and he responds to her. She feels the acidic bite of jealousy as Millie puts her hand on his arm and whispers something to him again with a giggle before pressing a chaste kiss goodbye on his cheek. Hastily Veronica looks away.

  
Evidently the other girls see it too, because when Millie passes them and throws one of her famous smirks practically everyone scoffs in annoyance.

 

“Well if that wasn’t disturbing to watch..” Sheila trails off her comment, eyes wide.

  
“She’s doing it to mess with us” Betty tells them all, glaring at Archie’s head like she wants to kick him for not realising the flirt. She scoffs and shakes her head, arms crossed. “Too bad. As if we cared!”

  
Veronica shakes herself of the feeling, a bit guilty because she _does_ care. But she decides to shrug it off, reminding herself not to be stupid because he’s nothing to her, after all.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  
The boys and girls disperse and soon the scrimmage begins. “Ready to play?” She asks Millie, who’s standing in front of her steady in a stance.

  
“Sure” she grins confidently. “Ready to lose?”

  
“I don’t lose.” And she plans to make that a guarantee.

  
The teams are quite evenly matched which makes it a good game, and Veronica has her eye on certain players. She passes the ball to Cheryl but she completely misses it, and instead goes straight to one of the Stallions who sends it smoothly into their goal. 

 

“Shit, Chery!” She curses, but the red head shrugs helplessly and she looks around for someone else to pass to next time. 

 

“Looking a little like shit yourself, _Moronica_ ” Millicent smirks, running up beside her and crashing into Veronica lightly on purpose. 

 

She glares up at her, a look that was bordering on murderous. “Even my worst day would still look better than your best, Millie” she pushes her back, walking ahead. “We all have our thing, right?”

 

 

Halfway through it she spots the pink haired Kennedy saying something angrily to their goalkeeper, frustrated because UCA keeps scoring and their goalie isn’t all that good- and when their coaches aren’t looking she looks over her shoulder at the Poisons and flips them the middle finger.

 

  
“ _Oh_ ” Veronica stares ahead passively. “Does Veronica Lodge need to slap a bitch?”

  
“She’s just mad because they suck” Cheryl says coolly, and they laugh and smirk amongst each other before continuing the second half of the game.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Archie is in no doubt that they’ll win by the second half of their game, and the pure emotion of adrenaline as he runs is awesome. He loves the intensity of the sport, loves the way it’s all about tact and precision and pushes all his limits physically. He ignores Carter and their boys’ remarks during the break- despite his friends looking at him like he’s a bottle that’s about to pop the top off.

  
Archie’s always been good at compartmentalising, that’s something that going to therapy seems to have effected him with. When his parents suggested he see somebody after the debacle with Fred and Carter’s dad, he’d been angry- if his parents want him to talk to someone then _they_ should. The sessions stopped when he learned to pretend like everything was okay, and since then Archie’s been relieved but a part of him now wonders what _actually_ having someone there to talk to would be like. And if it would help.

  
When the game finishes and Cyclones are reigning champions, the team all jump into their team hug and then Archie knows everything will be alright. At least for these moments.

 

 

 

 

  
“Good game, right?” Archie says cheekily, walking with extra flounce now that Coach Burton is telling them to shake hands with the other team and congratulate each other. He feels the hard bone of Carter’s shoulder bump into his, obviously on purpose, and stops.

 

“Fuck off, crazy” Carter mutters under his breath.

 

Archie can’t help himself then, and he turns around on his heel passing the boys behind him in the line to where Carter is just walking. He feels like something loud is beating inside his ears and he just wants to break something, even as his entire body shakes and it only crosses his mind for a second if anyone noticed- but he pulls the ignorant boy by his shoulder and turns his body around all in one movement.

  
“That wasn’t for you, but this is.” A full fisted punch across the side of Carter’s face startles him instantly, the sound deafening enough with the gasps that follow- and as soon as it happens Archie feels his heart beating a million miles a second. He knows it doesn’t hurt bad, because nothing bleeds or cuts but suddenly Carter’s whole face looks furious.

  
“Andrews!” Coach Burton is there in a second, putting space between both boys before the punch can turn into a full blown fight, pushing Archie even farther away hardly. “What the hell do you think you’re doing? We just won a game for gods sake”

  
There’s a lot of chaos. Coach takes Archie down to the locker room with a fallen expression but a twitch in his jaw, and then the slow murmur of the crowd rises to usual noise level as everyone jerks back into motion and starts to crowd around Carter to see if he’s okay.

 

 

 

 

 

 

  
x:x

 

 

 

 

 

  
Veronica holds onto Betty’s hand tight as they entered the lounge at Illyria. There’s people everywhere talking and trying out the several games that were provided for students. The atmosphere is surprisingly laid back, people talking and laughing and the teachers even have small flutes of champagne and a big buffet table of food for them to indulge in.

  
Veronica smiled to herself as she takes it all in. It feels like a good day after all, and to be at a gathering that isn’t wild parties or stuffy business events is a fresh change of pace. She’s beginning to feel tired, as everyone is which probably contributed to the laid back ambiance. She notices Archie also seems a bit quieter, looking for his face first in the crowd again. He’s just talking to people with a smile that seemed a little forced, despite still mingling. It makes her heart happy to know that they were both victorious today, and makes her wish she’d seen his surely childish look of thrill when his team won.

 

They say their goodbyes to the Stallions just in front of their bus, which they’re actually only going to be taking one home because apparently the other isn’t ready- and Veronica feels happy and lightheaded while they start to leave. It’s not like her to feel this good, she guesses it’s just the aftermath of a great win and this satisfaction remind her vividly of what it was like to win with the squad at Spence. But as she stands on the gravelly path waiting for everyone to get their gear inside she can’t help glancing towards Millie, who’s been annoyed and distant all evening.

 

Veronica feels like doing something.

  
Honestly, the win was enough, but having screwed her over the way she did back in New York- playing fair and square is only child’s play. Veronica Lodge has always been big on eye-for-eye. Her gaze trails on to where Archie is standing with Reggie and Chuck, and she’s reminded staggeringly of him and Millie earlier- and the perfect plan forms in her head.

  
“Come on V!” Betty and Cheryl both call to her, and they’re standing on the bottom step of the bus awaiting.

  
“Just a sec!” She shouts back louder on purpose, and as she runs up to her target it’s apparent that all eyes are on her- but especially Millie.

  
“Hey Carter” she approaches him cooly, and it’s clear that the older boy is quickly affected by her angelic face that’s smiling up at him. They’d talked in the lounge room earlier, having exchanged glances of recognition from afar. She hasn’t met him in _years_ , but Carter still has that classic heartthrob appeal and she’s pretty impressed. “I just wanted to say good game.”

  
He opens his mouth to say something but she stops him with a finger on his lips, stepping forward closely and pulling his neck down to kiss him. He’s shaken with surprise and she’s practically beaming, completely aware that everyone is just as shocked as he is. And from the one single glance she throws at Millie’s direction, she smirks and knows that it’s a good time to make an exit.

 

 

 

 

 

 

x:x

 

 

 

 

 

  
The bus ride back is madness, with so many people hyperactive with excitement over the win. Veronica is one of the ring leaders, using her phone to blast rap songs that they try and sing all the words to; only a few are successful but everyone is entertained and enjoying the craziness and fun she’s emitting. Archie joins in, equally impressed by her caliber of dancing until they’re getting close to home. Then he eventually drops down on one of the backseats sighing in exhaustion, still smiling from all the laughing and singing together.

  
“You were great today!” Veronica exclaims, sitting with Betty in the back row seat with their legs crossed. She’s feeling high on life and being the centre of attention always feels fun.

  
“You too, ladies!” Reggie cuts in, all three of them cursing internally when he swoops in and takes the empty seat between Betty and Archie, getting as close to her as he has all week. “Hey V Lo, are you into Carter West?”

  
Veronica’s brows travel to her hairline when she hears this, it’s expected but she feels a little awkward with Archie sitting right there. She’s completely oblivious to the almost _painful_ bite of jealousy he had to endure earlier, all of it coming too quick and then over in such a sudden occurrence to even comprehend. But all he knows is that watching her kiss the guy that’s family may have caused _his_ family’s current condition, felt like a white knife to the throat.

  
She laughs lightly. “Of course not. Honestly, I was just trying to make Millicent angry because she did something earlier.”

  
She catches Archie’s eye, and he looks quiet and uncomfortable before hastily looking down. A part of her feels guilty suddenly, but _why am **I** feeling guilty?_ It’s only when she belatedly notices Reggie Mantle’s half impressed and half proud look that she can take her mind off it.

  
“Wow.. you are vindictive Veronica Lodge.”

  
“You have no idea” she quips.

  
“Veronica has a big heart” Betty tells them, poking her friend in the arm all teasingly. “She just doesn’t show it!”

  
“The same could be said about you, B” Reggie looks at the blonde cheerfully, almost like everything this past week didn’t even happen. “Except the last part of course.”

  
In the midst of a perfect moment with all their best friends it’s easy to fall back into habits, and like the unthinking, un Cooper-like part of her is taking flight she feels light and her heart swells at him.

  
She uses one hand to push him in the chest playfully, which Reggie covers with his own and then leans forward and kisses her. He’s pleasantly surprised because she kisses back, tasting all like vanilla and sugar even at the end of the day.

  
“Okay okay you two, that’s enough!” Veronica, who’s equally as uncomfortable as Archie, shakes her head at them. “Honestly.. I don’t know what’s worse. Sitting here and watching you two make out or going upfront and listen to Sheila whining about her fucking blisters.”

  
Reggie chortles his laughter and the four of them look down the aisle to where they can see Sheila stretching her legs over two whole seats next to a few other girls looking very upset about it. They burst into a laugh, and for that moment of time just the four of them in the back of the bus and wide happy smiles is all that matters.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> as always you’re amazing for reading 🌟 leave me a comment for support and follow me on tumblr @ff16xo we can chat and anything else!
> 
> | 
> 
> this fic is going to be on short hiatus while I work on a different project, so look out for that too!


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